Qass 




BookJAoiVi. 



A HISTORY 



OF 



MANLIUS VILLAGE, 



IN A 



COURSE C^ LECTURES 



READ BEFORE 



The Manlius Literary Association 



BY 



HENRY C. VAN SCHAACK, 



Vice-President of (hat Association. 



REVISED AND ENLARGED. 



PRINTED AT THE RECORDER OFFICE, 

FAYETTEVILLE, N. Y. 



1873. 






Itr^tf, 



1 



HISTORY OF MANLIUS VILLAGE. 



CHAPTER I. 

According to our local historian*, to whose researches 
I have been very much indebted m the preparation of 
these papers, the settlement of Manlius Village com- 
menced in the early part of the tenth decade of the last 
century. The first settler here was John A. Shaeffer, a 
German Dutchman, who came here in 1792, and built a 
log house near where the Episcopal Church now^ stands. 
This log house soon after became the first tavern in our 
village, of which mynheer Shaeffer was the host. The 
next settler, as we are informed, was Charles MulhoUand, 
an Irishman, who lived in a log house erected near where 
Mr. Pendleton's house stands. Our German progenitor 
not only got the start of his Irish neighbor as the first 
settler here, but the first baby born in our village was al- 
so of German descent, being a son of this Mr. Shaeffer. 
The child w^as born in the log tavern, and the very next 
morning after his birth he was named after the great rev- 
olutionary General, the Baron Steuben. The way the 
babe got this big name, and go^ it so quick, is matter of 
history ; and as writers in all ages, whether poets, bio- 
gi-aphers, essayists, statists or historians, have ever at- 
tached the greatest importance to every incident connect- 
ed with the birth and parentage of the first child born 
in any new settlement, rising town, renowned city or new- 
ly discovered country, it will not become me lightly to 

*Mr. J. V. H. Cliirk. 



HISTORY OF MANLIUS VILLAGE. 



pass over this all important and most interesting event 
in onr village history. 

In the year 1794, Baron Steuben, of revolutionary 
fame, arrived in Manlius village, on his return from 
business to the Salt Springs at Salina. He stopped over 
night at Mr. Shaeffer's log tavern. Being much fa- 
tigued by his travels, the Baron retired to bed early, hop- 
ing to get a good night's rest. But unfortunately there was 
no sleep for his eyelids. The house was a scene of con- 
fusion through the live-long night. Persons were heard 
by the Baron mo"ving from room to room, opening and 
shutting doors, with sujDpressed female voices and other 
noises, insomuch that he scarcely slept a wink. Possi- 
bly his trying to hear what the ladies w^ere talking about 
helped to keep him awake. However this may be, the 
Baron got up in the morning in a great rage and gave 
the tavern-keeper a piece of his mind for keeping such a 
noisy house. All this time he was entirely ignorant of 
the innocent and helpless cause of all this commotion. 
He had little idea that during that eventful night an ad- 
dition of one had been made to the population of the 
rising ^^llage of Manlius. But when the fact was made 
known to him by ocular demonstration ; when the nurse 
brought forw^ard the little new-comer in her outspread 
arms and placed the babe before him as the innocent 
cause of the night's commotion, the f)ld General was 
dumbfounded. He knew not what to say. He did what 
he had never done before. He surrendered on the spot. 
Making many apologies to the landlord for his rudeness, 
the guest and his host immediately entered upon nego- 
tiations for a treaty of peace. Most fortunately, as good 
luck would have it, the babe was a boy ; and it was prob- 
ably owing to that little circumstance that the high con- 
tracting parties came to such a speedy settlement ; for 
the landlord agreed that the bov should take the name of 



HISTORY OF MANLIU8 VILLAGE. 



Steuben, and then the Baron sat down at the table and 
gave his Httle namesake a deed of two hundred and fifty 
acres of land in the town of Steuben". 

So the onlv Baron Steuben, Junior, that ever lived was 
born in the village of Manlius ; for although the old 
Baron was a brave soldier he never dared to get married. 
He lived and died a bachelor, and he appears to have 
been more afraid of the ladies than he was of the Brit- 
ish. 

With the exception of this constitutional dislike of the 
ladies, Frederic William Aiigustus, Baron Steuben, was 
a noble character, and generous to a fault. Fifty years 
ago I visited the old German Church, then still standing 
in Nassau street in the city of New York. An inscrip- 
tion on a mural monument erected to the Baron's mem- 
ory in that church presents a just view of his character ; 
and although perhaps foreign to my main purpose this 
evening, I shall not apologize for introducing it here, in 
connection with the anecdote above given by which the 
name of Steuben is so pleasingly associated with our 
early village history. The inscription read thus: " Sa- 
cred to the memory of Frederic William Augustus Bar- 
on Steuben ; -a German Knight of the order of Fidelity ; 
Aid-de-camp to Frederic the Great, King of Prussia ; 
Major-General and Inspector-General in the Revolution- 
ary War ; esteemed, respected and supported by Wash- 
ington. He gave mihtary discipline and skill to the citi- 
zen soldiers, who^ fulfilling the decrees of heaven, 
achieved the independence of the United States. The 
highly polished manners of the Baron were graced by 
the most noble feelings of tlie heart. His hand open as 
day for melting charity, closed only in the strong grasp 
of death ! This memorial is inscribed by an American, 
who had the honor to be his aid-de-camp, and the hap- 
piness to be his friend. Obiit, 1794." 



6 HISTORY OF MANLIUS VILLAGE. 

I have, in ray authographic collection,* a letter which 
possesses a twofold interest from its having lieen written 
by one to another of General Steuben's Aids-de-camp, — 
Col. North to Col. Walker,— the subject of which is the 
Baron's liberality, often ill-judged, in giving away so 
much of the land which was conveyed to him by the State 
of New York, in recognition of his revolutionary ser- 
vices. " The Baron," wrote North, "was idly generous in 
giving so much of his land to worthless servants. Amongst 
those, Lopez has one liundred acres. Burke, another 
rascal, and to whom I believe he has given another hun- 
dred, has commissioned Mulligan to buy Lopez' farm of 
him. It is a pity, I say, that the Baron should give this 
farm either to one or the other of them. I want you, 
and I would certainty do it myseK if I was in New York, 
to commission Bill Robinson, or some one else, to jDur- 
chase Lopez' right to^this farm, (it may be done, I sup- 
pose, for fifteen or twenty dollars,) and give it into the 
Baron's hands again, he paying what you give." 

There is now living in our immediate neighborhood a 
lady, Mrs. Lucy Lower, aged 69, whose uncle, Peter B. 
Messenger, drew the logs which were used in building 
the first log house erected in Manlius Village. 

The first wedding which took place here was solemn- 
ized on the 14th of January, 1793. The happy parties 
w'ere both of Dutch extraction, being Nicholas Phillips 
and Caty Garlock. Nicholas and Caty have long since 
passed from this mundane sphere of action. They did 
not leave the world, however, until they had witnessed 
the marvelous changes and im})rovements which had tak- 
en place in these regions during the thirty years which 
succeeded the ceremony of their marriage in one of the 
first log cabins erected in our village. 

The mention of Caty's early history would call forth a 
tear over her youthful sufferings. When she was a little 



HISTORY OF MANLIUS VILLAGE. 



girl residing on the banks of the Mohawk she rambled 
one day into the woods, where she was seized by some 
prowling Indians, who scalped her and knocked in her 
skull, leaving her, as they doubtless supposed, for dead. 
She remained lying in the woods, in this pitiable condi- 
tion, for several days before she was found by her friends, 
or received any care. She carried with her through Hfe 
the evidences of the injuries which she then received, 
having been obliged to protect the top of her head with 
a covering for fifty years or more, and to her dying day. 
In truth, her death was supposed to have been hastened 
by exposure of the injured parts, on some occasion. 

Nicholas survived Caty about thirty years ; the latter 
having died in 1824, and the former in 1854. At the age 
of 83, Nicholas was as agile and could ride as erect on 
horseback as a boy of eighteen. The fall before his death 
he alone ploughed and put in all 'the seed for a crop of 
wheat on his farm. If Nicholas was not a wit, he was 
yet often the cause for merriment, if not of wit, in oth- 
ers. Qn one occasion he found himself in a ludicrous 
predicament. He came to our village one day from his 
farm, on horseback, to make some purchases at A. 
Smith's store. He bought a pitchfork and some indigo. 
The indigo he carried in a paper, perhaps loosely tied, 
in his hat, resting it on the top of his head. In return- 
ing to his home his horse took fright and ran away with 
him. It was a warm, sunny day, and the jolting of his 
horse-back ride, combining with his profuse perspira- 
tion, caused the indigo to melt and run down his head 
and face, rendering him a most laughable loolcing object 
of sight, in his ride and on his arrival at home. Soon af- 
ter, on going to Mr. Smith's store to trade, he reminded 
the young clerk, Mr. I. C. Smith, that " he was the boy 
who sold him that indigo." 

I knew Nicholas Phillips well, having had an acquaint- 



HISTORY OF MANLIUS VILLAGE. 



ance with him for twenty years. He was a man of great 
simplicity of character in every point of view ; and prob- 
ably had a much larger share of the virtue which is said 
to be a distinguished trait of his Dutch ancestry than 
ordinarily falls to the lot of unsophisticated man. Such 
was the character of that simplicity, that had he lived, at 
the proper time,on the banks of the Hudson, he would have 
been entitled to a prominent place in the written history 
of New York, as compiled by that renowned author, 
Diederick Knickerbocker. His conceptions of the oper- 
ations of the electric telegraph, in the transmission of 
intelligence, and particularly in the promotion of corres- 
pondence between friends, were such, that when tele- 
grams first passed over the wires, Nicholas deliberately 
took his stand by the side of the railroad at Manlius 
Station, and steadily fixed his eyes upon the wires, pa- 
tiently watching to s^e the letters pass along to their 
places of destination ! 

How long he remained in that position I am unable 
to say ; but probably sufficiently long to satisfy his own 
mind, that there were "ways that were dark" in practical 
telegraphy. 

And yet, we ought not to laugh too soon or too heart- 
ily at the apparent simplicity of our old settler, lest we 
involve ourselves in a similar predicament for ridicule. 
Who shall say that it is the uneducated man alone who 
is unable to comprehend great ideas, or to appreciate 
the utilization and value of extraordinary inventions 
and discoveries, when we see that many of the wisest 
and strongest men of that day had no faith whatever in 
practical telegraphy. As late as 1843, with the person- 
al explanations and experiments of Morse before them, 
leading members of Congress overflowed with ridicule of 
the great invention, having as little conception of the 
practical working of the electric telegraph as had old 
Nicholas Phillips, of Manlius. 



HISTOEY OF MANLIUS VILLAGE. 9 

But I must not go too far into biography, while writ- 
ing a Village History ; and yet what would an incipient 
village, in a new country, be, without MEN to fall the 
standing trees which obstruct the village site ; to subdue 
the wild ; and to erect^buildings for human habitation ; 
— or without woman to be the companion of man; to 
share with him the responsibilities of life ; and to take 
charge of the various domestic duties of the household ; 
— or without childeen to enliven the family circle ; to 
swell the rising population ; and eventually to fill the 
places of their fathers and mothers. 

I am not therefore prepared to admit that biography, 
even of the uneducated, or the lowly in life, is foreign to 
history. 



CHAPTER II. 

The first frame house erected here was built in 1792, 
by Conrad Lower. It stood, up to a few years ago, on 
the western outskirt of the present village, near the dyke 
leading to Fayetteville, and was occupied for many years 
by Salmon Sherwood. Mr. Lower brought some of the 
floor-boards from Palatine Bridge, a distance of eighty 
miles. He sent his son thirty-three miles, on foot, to 
Oriskany, for nails, who brought back forty-six pounds 
in a bag 'on horseback. 

Our first school house was erected in 1798. It was 
built with logs, and stood a little north of Mr. Costello's 
mill. 

In 1800 or 1801 there were only six dwellings in Man- 
lius Village, with one store and one tavern ; one doctor, 
one lawyer and one blacksmith. iVlthough former his- 



10 HISTORY OF MANLIUS VILLAGE. 

toriaDS say nothiug on the subject, I think I may venture 
to add, without justly subjecting myself to the charge of 
rashly invading the domain of conjectural history, that 
there was here also, at that period, at least one shoemak- 
er ; as it is not all likely in such a wild region of coun- 
try where there were so many bears and deers waiting 
to be flayed, that our old settlers went barefoot ; although 
it is not improbable that before the arrival of the Knight 
of St. Crispin, our ancestors may have resorted to the 
neighboring Indians for moccasins, with which to pro- 
tect their pedal extremities. 

I desire here, however, to assure my hearers, and the 
readers of my history, that I will endeavor to make this 
the only instance in which, through the course of these 
lectures, I shall resort to my imagination for my facts. 

There was a post-office here as early as 1800 ; and, at 
that period, the village received the high sounding name 
of Liberty Square. It retained that name, however, for 
only a short time, when it became known as Manlius 
Square, by which latter name it is still often called. 

In 1804, Manlius Square contained about thirty hous- 
es. From this period it probably grew quite rapidly, 
and it not long after became, and continued for many 
years to be, the largest village, and by far the most 
prominent business place, in Onondaga county. The 
leading and most enterprising business men in this region 
resided here. The flrst newspaper printed in the county 
was published here. The transportation of merchandise 
and other goods to and from the east and west, and the 
travel both ways, centered at this point, by the meeting 
here of the Seneca and Cherry Valley turnpikes. This 
transportation and travel, at one time, was so immense 
that almost every other house along the road was a 
tavern. There were then six or seven large public 
houses between this village and Chittenango. 



HISTORY OF MANLIUS VILLAGE. 11 

The town of Manilas, as originally laid out, was the 
largest town in the county. It then included besides the 
present town the largest portion of De Witt, and parts of 
Onondaga and Salina, with the greater part of the site 
of the present city of Syracuse. Manlius village was for 
more than twenty years the centre of business of all 
this territory, as well as of an extensive regi6n of coun- 
try south and east of us. Mr. Joseph Williams informs 
me that at one time about 1815 there were sixteen stores 
in this village. From subsequent infoimation, I think 
that Mr. Williams is mistaken ; and that there were not 
at any time more than eleven or twelve stores here. All 
agree that it was a very lively place of business. Man- 
lius village was a driving business place when the site of 
Syracuse was a dreary swamp. 

The construction of the Erie canal, although highly 
beneficial to the country in general, had a very injurious 
effect upon tlie business of this village. It opened new 
avenues for commerce, and invited enterprise and activi- 
ty to other geographical points. New villages arose up- 
on its banks, and Hull's Landing, Manlius Centre, Kirk- 
ville, Fayetteville and Syracuse, drew off a large amount 
of trade and other business, as well as population, from 
their old mother, Manlius. The transportation of mer- 
chandise, farm productions and other property, which 
had before been carried on by land, upon the completion 
of the canal was mainly conducted by water ; and a 
great share of travel also took the same course in the 
packet and fine boats, in the season of navigation, al- 
though several lines of stages continued to pass through 
here daily twice a day until the railroad was constructed, 
which, for a time, caused another unfavorable effect up- 
on our village. 

One of the first public meetings I recollect to have at- 
tended here was at Mr. Warren's tavern, then kept in 
the second building west of Hamlin's Mill. The object 



12 HISTORY OF MANLIUS VILLAGE. 



of the meeting was to take measures for reviving the 
business of the village by constructing a canal from here 
to Fayetteville feeder, so as to connect this village with 
the grand canal. An act was passed by the Legislature, 
on the 14th day of May, 1828, by which it was provided 
that Sylvanus Tousley, Azariah Smith, Nathan Williams 
Thomas J. Gilbert, John Sprague and Nicholas P. Ran- 
dall, with others who might associate with them, should 
be a body corporate by tlie name of " The Manlius Ca- 
nal Company." The management of the company was 
to be entrusted to nine directors. The six gentlemen 
above named were appointed commissioners to receive 
subscriptions to the capital stock, and when fifteen thou- 
sand dollars should be subscribed directors were to be 
chosen. The corporation was empowered to construct, 
and ever maintain, a slack-water navigation in or near 
the Limestone creek, and build a canal of suitable depth 
and dimensions for the passage of canal boats, from any 
point on and connected with the feeder taken from the 
Limestone creek for the use of the Erie canal, to the vil- 
lage of Manlius, provided it be completed in six years. 
Nearly twenty thousand dollars of the stock, if I recol- 
lect right, was taken to promote this canal project. But 
it fell through, and that was probably the time that Man- 
lius missed it, and lost a chance for regaining a good 
share of her prior prosperity. Had this canal been con- 
structed our village would have been at the head of nav- 
igation this Avay, and the place for transhipment of mer- 
chandise, plaster, water-lime, grain and other agricul- 
tural productions for a considerable extent of country 
about us ; our long neglected water-power would prob- 
ably have been improved to its utmost capacity ; our 
population greatly increased, and many improvemei'ts 
since made in other villages in the town would have been 
made here. A good shaft of Fayetteville, which was 



HISTORY OF MANLIUS VILLAGE. 13 

then noted as a " village having four taverns and no 
meeting house," would probably have found a resting 
place in the bosom of Manlius village. 

I cannot give the reason why this canal project was 
not carried out, unless it was the want of funds ; but it 
was no doiibt a good one ; for we had living here then 
such enterprising and public spirited men as Azariah 
Smith, Nicholas P. Randall, bylvanus Tousley, Silas 
Williams, Eliliu Ewers, Franklin May, Elijah Ehoades, 
Thomas J. Gilbei-t, William Taylor, S. L. Edwards, D. 
B. Bickford, Nathan Williams, Joseph Smith, Ehhu L. 
PhilKps, Illustrious and Arnold Remington, with others 
whose names do not occur to me ; and these gentlemen 
would not have been apt to let so important a project go 
down had it been deemed practicable. 

It is an interesting fact in our history, that the idea 
was entertained at one time in this State of connecting 
the waters of the Susquehanna with the Erie canal, by a 
canal which in its route would follow the valley of the 
Limestone and pass through this village. There was a 
pro\dsion in the law incorporating The Manlius Canal 
Company, by which the State reserved the right, should 
the Susquehanna project be carried out by the State, of 
taking the Manlius canal, if necessary, by refunding the 
cost of their canal to the Manlius company. 

As the Manlius canal never had an existence, it of 
coui'se was not swallowed by the Susquehanna canal, 
Avhich only had a place in the imagination of its projectors. 

On the 18th of December, 1830, a notice was published 
in the " Manlius Repository," a newspaper published in 
this village at that time, that an application would be 
made at the next session of the Legislature for an act to 
incorjjorate a company for the construction of a railroad 
from the village of Manlius to the Erie canal. I need 
hardly say that nothing came of this last project. 



14 HISTORY OF MANLIUS VILXAGE. 

In March, 1816, a memorial was presented in tlie Sen- 
ate of this State for the location at ManKus village of 
the State Prison, then proposed to be erected in this 
part of the State, and which was finally fixed at Auburn. 
The prospect for the success of the memorial was very 
fair, and it is confidently believed that had it been started 
in season it would have succeeded. Mr. Randall, who 
was one of a committee Avho went to Albany with the 
memorial, wrote to Mr. Azariah Smith : " If the busi- 
ness had been timely attended to, I have no doubt we 
might have prevailed in our apphcation ; and I am now 
not without strong hopes of success. We shall stay 
longer if the prospect continues good. It has much 
brightened to-day, and we have made Beach very uneasy, 
I feel almost certain that Utica cannot get it." 



CHAPTER III. 

Originally, the business part of our village was above 
or east of the brick store erected by Azariah Smith, and 
now occupied by Mr. Hadley. There was some evidence 
of this when I came here in 1827, although the lower, and 
now central part of the village, had taken the lead some 
time before. When Mr. Smith built the brick store in 
181G, he was laughed at for building so far down street, 
and so remote from the business centre. 

The business establishments of the original village 
were centered, for the most part, around a pubhc square; 
almost as much so as the lower end of Fayetteville is now, 
although the gi'ound conlfctuting the square in our village 



HISTORY OF MANLIUS VILLAGE. 15 

was considerably longer than that at Fayetteville. This 
square extended from the west side of Mr. J. C. Smith's 
door yard down to the east side of the brick store, and 
from the Academy Green down the same distance on the 
opposite side of Seneca street. Originally, and until 
about 1840, there were no door yards on either side 
of this square, and no fences or shrubbery, and scarcely 
a tree ; and the sidewalks ran close to the front of the 
buildings. You will see that this left a large open space 
or square. Immediately connected with this square, 
there were originally a number of stores and shops on 
Cherry Valley street, next south of the Academy build- 
ing, and also on Seneca street from Doctor Nims' house, 
formerly a store, down to the corner, and from Mr. 
Hadley's store down an equal distance on the opposite 
side. 

In 1827 the whole of that part of the village which I 
have just described had an old, dilapidated, forlorn look, 
and the buildings up the hill had the same appearance. 
Where Mr. Wallace Wilhams' spacious house now stands, 
was an old story-and-a-half house in process of repair. 
At the head of the Academy-Green was an old wood-col- 
ored building which had at one time been a store, but 
was then occupied by good old Mr. Joel Huntington as a 
cabinet-maker's shop and dwelUng. The Academy build- 
ing was then a dismal-looking, rough-stone, two-story 
building, unplastered, unpainted, and unoccupied, except 
that John Fleming, Jr.Esq., had a law office in the north- 
west corner. The main part of Mr. H. W. Ewer's house 
was an old store, afterwards placed in its present eligi- 
ble condition by Mr. Whiting. Where Mr. Pendleton's 
fine house stands was an old, ungainly two-and-a-half 
story frame dwelling almost ready to tumble down, and 
then the oldest tavern in the village. On the opposite side 
of the street, where the Episcopal Church now stands, 



16 HISTORY OP MANLIUS VILLAGE. 



was a block of old dilapidated stores and shops, after- 
wards torn down or moved down street. 

Without going farther into particulars, I would par- 
ticularly mention as greatly adding to the dismalness of 
this part of the village, that there was a deep gully or 
chasm in the middle of Seneca street, running between 
two road-ways, and extending from opposite the Acade- 
my down to Mr. White's liouse. This gully was so broad 
and deep, a good pai-t of the way, that carriages could 
not cross from one side of Main street to the other. 
They were obliged to go above or below in order to cross 
the street. A gentleman Avho commanded a military 
company here at an early day informed me that when 
undertaking one day to cross this gully on foot at the 
head of his company, he slipped and fell in ; and the fall 
so wrenched liim as to make a dreadful tear in his pan- 
taloons. The tear was so big that when the Captain 
got up out of the ditch and reached terra firma, instead 
of marching off at the head of his compan}' as he de- 
signed to do, he was obliged to march all alone to the 
tailor shop and lay up for repairs. I can well conceive 
how provoked a military man would feel to be thus de- 
tained in the shop to have his pants mended, while his 
company was out on the Green waiting for him to come 
and drill them. It was a trying position in which to 
place any man of spirit. Some of you smile ; but it is a 
true story. I had it from the Captain himself ; and al- 
though he has naturally a long sober face, he could not 
restrain an audible smile when he told me what an " aw- 
ful tear" that was in his pantaloons ! The word " aw- 
ful" was used by him, and is not original with me. 

The Captain is still living with us, and is quite hale 
and erect with only a slight stoop of the shoulders, at 
the advanced age of eightj-three. He is one of our old- 
est citizens, having confe here in 1810. Long may his 
tiag continue to wave ! 



HISTORY OF MANLIUS VILLAGE. 17 

I am not aware that our "sdllage authorities were ever 
called upon to pay damages for the aforesaid injury to 
the Captain's pantaloons, but it certainly was a clear case 
of legal liability, as the corporation was bound in law 
to keep the street in good order for crossing ; nor do I 
know whether our citizens were taxed to pay the tailor's 
bill, as the thing happened many years before I came to 
the place. But if they were not so taxed, they certainly 
ought to have been, for ours was a much clearer case of 
public liabiKty than one which occurred at Albany some 
years ago, in which the State Treasurer paid the tailor's 
bill for repairing a pair of pantaloons without question, 
and the Comptroller added the necessary amount to the 
people's tax. As I am now writing history — and village 
history certainly forms an integral portion of the history 
of the State in which the village is situated — it may be 
well to refer particularly to the facts in the State case, if 
for no other reason, for the future guidance of our own 
village authorities, as well as that of other villages about 
us. 

In 1832 a charge was made by his political opponents 
against a prominent candidate for the office of Governor 
of this State, that when he was a Judge of the Supreme 
Court he had debited the State with fifty cents paid by 
him for " work done to my (his) pantaloons." The State 
records at Albany showed that his claim had been au- 
dited by the Comptroller, and the money repaid to the 
Judge. One objection to this charge was that it was no 
part of the State's duty to pay for mending the breeches 
of the judges, or of any other office holders, in addition to 
their regular salaries ; and that the State was under no 
more obligations to mend the Judge's old clothes than to 
buy him new ones. It was also contended by the politi- 
cal opponents of the gubernatorial candidate that al- 
though judges when going about the State to hold 



18 HISTORY OF MANLIUS VILLAGE. 



courts were entitled, by law, to charge their " traveling 
expenses," yet that mending their clothes did not prop- 
erly form a part of such expenses, nor was the cost of 
such mending legitimate " spoils." This argument, how- 
ever, was greatly weakened by the circumstance, ( the 
traveling having occurred before convenient locomotion by 
railroad was common, )that in order to attend the courts, 
the judges had often to travel over rough, and even cordu- 
roy roads, which were particularly calculated to wear out 
their clothes, and that in the public ser^dce. 

But still another and a prominent objection was that 
the charge was " too general," it being for " work done 
to my pantaloons," without specifying what that work 
was, or where the pantaloons needed mending, so that 
the tax-payers could not judge whether the sum charged 
was reasonable or not. For aught that appeared, the 
work done was merely taking a stitch or two, or sewing 
on a single button, and that it would bring on an amount 
of taxation a little short of ruinous if the State had to 
pay fifty cents for each and every button sewed on the 
garments of the office holders. Every man has about 
two dozen buttons on a suit of clothes, which would make 
the cost of sewing on the buttons at least twelve dollars 
for each suit ; and this would be a great temptation to 
tailors and seamstresses to sew on buttons very slightly 
for the express purpose of getting up a big bill against 
the State, which was known to be good pay. It was al- 
lowed, however, that if the work consisted of re-seating 
the pants, (the Judge being a large man,) the charge was 
not unreasonable, particularly if the tailor found the cloth. 

I should be giving too large a space for my episode 
did I mention all the objections, but so formidable were 
they that some of the judge's friends advised the with- 
drawal of his name from candidature in the gubernatorial 
contest. The people; however, took a charitable view 



HISTOEY OF MANLIUS VILLAGE. 19 

of the case at the election, and regarded the debit of fif- 
ty cents in the hght of a " lapsus pennae" rather than a 
deliberate attack upon the State Treasury. Judge Mar- 
cy was elected Governor, and at the two subsequent elec- 
tions he was re-elected to the same office. At the elec- 
tion in 1838, however, he was defeated by William H. 
Seward, being left in a minority of ten thousand. But 
higher honors awaited Gov. Marcy, as he was subse- 
quently appointed to places in two different Presidential 
Cabinets : first as Secretary of War, and next as Secre- 
tary of State, in which latter position he evinced great 
ability as a statesman. 

At a convivial meeting of friends many years after- 
wards. Gov. Marcy explained to the company present 
the accidental manner in which the obnoxious item of 
fifty cents crept into his account against the State. In 
getting out of the stage at a place where he was about 
to hold a court, he tore his pants badly. Having given 
them to the hotel-keeper to have them mended, the lat- 
ter gentleman had paid the expense and charged it in 
his bill. In settling his account with the Comptroller, 
Judge Marcy produced his hotel bill duly receipted as a 
voucher for his traveling expenses, without thinking of 
or noticing the obnoxious item. Marcy strenously main- 
tained at this convivial meeting, that it was that tear in 
his pants that elected him Governor. He advised each 
gentleman present, should he ever be a candidate for 
the office of Governor of the great State of New York, 
that the way to make his election sure would be to have 
a patch put upon his pantaloons. 



20 HISTORY OF MANLIUS VILLAGE. 

CHAPTER TV. 

But to return to our main subject. To add to the dis- 
malness of the upper part of our village, in 1827, and for 
a good many years afterwards, there stood astride the 
deep gully to which I have alluded, and about opposite 
to Mr. Ewers's house an old, weather-beaten, forlorn-look- 
ing engine-house. If any person will go to the middle 
of Seneca street opposite to Mr. Ewers's big gate, he will 
find standing there now in the centre of the traveled 
road the remains of three posts, which no doubt formed 
a part of the foundation of the'old engine-house, or were 
connected with it. 

I should here add that formerly the high land on the 
south side ot Seneca street above Mr. Wallace Wil- 
liams's door yard jutted out much further to the north 
than it now does, and extended as far north as the mid- 
dle of the present traveled road, making a crook in the 
road and greatly obstructing the view up street. In 
looking in that direction from below, your eyes meet 
this hill. There was also quite a hill in Seneca street 
opposite to the brick store, which needed a heavy cutting 
down in order to grade the street. In 1827 there were 
no such long lines of shade trees bordering the side walks 
as now. All the old buildings were fully exposed to 
view, wiih scarcely a tree or any shrubbery to hide their 
deformities. 

Now if any one, bearing in mind the description I have 
given of the former state of the upper part of our village, 
and which in all its main features I know to be correct, 
will take his stand in the middle of Seneca street, oppo- 
site to the Presbyterian church, and look up sti'eet, he 
will not fail to be astonished at the numerous and sub- 
stantial improvements here made. This part of the vil- 
lage has been completely revolutionized. It is no long- 
€^r the village it was when I came here. Instead of the 



HISTOEY OF MANLIUS VILLAGE. 



21 



old engine-house astride the gully in the middle of the 
street, and the old store building at the h^ad of Acade- 
my-Green, your eyes meet the elegant residence of Mr. 
Wallace Williams. Instead of a divided roadway, with 
one division made crooked by a huge hill jutting out into 
it and interrupting the prospect, you have now an unob- 
structed street to near the top of the hill with fine rows 
of trees on each side ; the big hill cut down and earth 
removed; the gully filled up, and new ditches made and 
substantially paved on each side of the street ; the hill at 
the brick store cut down, and the street regularly graded ; 
new door-yards created and adorned with trees and 
shrubbery, extending from the Academy to White's corner 
and from Clinton street to St. John's boarding hall. 
All the old buildings from Mr. Safford's fine residence on 
the hill, which in 1827 consisted of only the wing to the 
present house down to the Presbyterian church, except 
two or three small ones, have been renovated and placed 
in good condition ; some of them considerably enlarged, 
and a number of new buildings erected. Smith's and 
White's corners have since been greatly improved ; the 
Baptist church erected, and since nicely repaire'd ; the 
Episcopal church removed from the hill to its present 
eligible position, and now faced by the fine residence of 
Mr. Pendleton on the opposite side of the street. 
There is not now a single business establishment above 
the brick store. All the buildings about the Old 
Square, except the Episcopal church edifice and the 
Academy, are now dwellings. 

Many of these improvements have been so gradual 
that they have not been particularly noticed in the pro- 
gress and changes of time, and probably never contrast- 
ed with the former state of things ; and I was not myself 
conscious of their magnitude until I came to make the 
contrast in penning these notes. 



22 HISTORY OF MANLIUS VILLAGE. 

Numerous and very substantial improvements have 
been made in other parts of our village, and about sixty 
new dwellings have been erected here since 1827. You 
know what decicied improvements have been made in 
our two greatly enlarged hotels. The fine sightly new 
residences of Mr. Wallace Williams, Mr. Appletou, and 
Mr. Hinsdell ; the thoroughly renovated dwellings of 
General Patrick (formerly Doctor Taylor's,) and of Mr. 
Champlin, (formerly Mr. Franklin May's,) together with 
the fine situations of Judge Edwards, Mr. Moulter, and 
Mrs. Fleming, and the greatly improved dwelling of Mr. 
J. C. Smith, (formerly Mr. Randall's,) would be orna- 
ments in any village. St. John's School grand edifice is 
an imposing addition and ornament to Manlius Village. 

It may be asked how could such an obnoxious gully as 
the one described have been allowed to remain for so 
many years in the centre of the village, and in such a 
public street. I can only partially account for it in this 
way. Originally there were two traveled roadways in 
Main or Seneca street from near the top of the hill down 
to White's corner. The north one of these roadways 
ran considerably north of where the traveled road now 
is, for the high land extending from opposite to Mr. 
Selkrigg's house down to Wallace Williams's big gate, be- 
fore it was cut down, jutted a great deal farther north 
than it now does. The south roadway, which was the 
Seneca turnpike, ran on this high land, and so straight 
down to White's corner. The fences in front of the 
Cemetery, and all the front fences on the south side of 
Seneca street down to White's corner, now stand in what 
was the old traveled turnpike. All the stages to and 
from the east used to go on the turnpike side of the 
street, and the Episcopal church, when on the hill, faced 
the turnpike. 

Now between these two roadways, from the Academy 



HISTOKY OF MANLIUS VILLAGE. 23 

Green down, was the gully I have described. The pres- 
ent ditches on each side of Seneca street had not then 
been made, and the gully constituted the ditch to carry 
away the water which came down that street and Cherry 
Valley street, and the water having passed down in this 
way for a great many years, the gully was in constant 
process of enlargement. In 1840 or 1841, the turnpike 
was abandoned, and the owners of property' on the south 
side of Seneca street were allowed to build fences in 
front of their residences, inclosing a part of the old 
turnpike, and this was allowed also on the north side of 
the Square. Then the old engine-house was removed ; 
the hill up street cut down and the earth carted down 
street to fill the gully and to grade the street ; the hill 
opposite* the brick store was also cut down. The grad- 
ing of the street involved an immense amount of labor, 
and also of expense, which was met, in great part, by pri- 
vate subscription. The whole achievement was a big job, 
nobly engineered by Mr. Azariah Smith, a man who was 
greatly abused in his day by some people, but whose ser- 
vices were very quickly sought for by those same people 
when they were in trouble, or had any hard nuts to be 
cracked. 

Another great improvement made in our village, was in 
paving the open ditches on each side of Seneca street 
from Clinton street down. The credit of this improve- 
ment was also due to Mr.' Smith. As in every thing else 
he undertook, he was very thorough in the superinten- 
dence of this work, and in driving it to a successful ac- 
complishment. He took hold himself and made the boys 
move around pretty lively. The immense volume of wa- 
ter passing down the street at times rendered this a very 
desirable improvement, or we should have had a great 
gully on each side of the street. It is much to be re- 
gretted that after the village had been to so much trouble 
and expense in making this great improvement, some 



24 HISTORY OF MANLIUS VILLAGE. 

of our citizens should have been allowed to cover these 
ditches in several places, and that, in such a way as not 
only to throw the surface water falling on the sides, but 
the Lirge volume of water coming down from above, into 
the middle of the street, flooding it at times, and goug- 
ing out the roadway. 



CHAPTER V. 



Our four houses for pubhc worship are in a much more 
desirable condition than tbey have been at any former 
period. The Episcopal church edifice is the oldest, hav- 
ing been erected in 1813. It has been generally admired 
for its s^^mmetrical proportions. When first hinlt, it was 
placed on the steep hill above Mr. WilHams's house, at 
the east end of the village. Tlie selection of such an el- 
evated and exposed spot for a church edifice, and one so 
inconvenient of access, was in accordance with a prac- 
tice adopted in the first settlement of our western vil- 
lages, of fixing upon the most sightly position in or near 
the village plot for the church. The comfort and con- 
venience of worshipers was wholly disregarded and made 
to give way to a village pride and love for conspicuity, 
and often, no doubt, to subserve the selfish purpose of 
speculators. A better judgment and taste have latterly 
prevailed in this matter ; and in the erection of our hous- 
es for worship, special regard is now more generally 
paid to ease and convenience of access, as well as to the 
centre of population. 

In 1832 the Episcopal church edifice was moved down 
the hill, on wheels, through what is now Mr. AVilliams's 
orchard and garden, and placed in its present eligible 



HISTOEY OF MANLIUS VILLAGE. 25 

position, with its steeple standing, bell hanging, and or- 
gan ready for play ; " without jarring it so much as 
to remove a square foot of plastering." To the 
faithful services and perseverance of our former fellow 
citizen, and long standing vestrj^man, Mr. Robert Gil- 
mor, is due much of the credit for the removal of the 
building to its present convenient site. The lot on which, 
the church now stands was generously given by Mr. Az- 
ariali Smith. The original bell in this church was crack- 
ed in 1822, when tolled at the funeral of Mr. Stoughton 
Morse. It was afterwards recast by Mr Horace Hills 
at Auburn. 

The church edifice has latterly been very decidedly im- 
proved iij its interior aspect and adornment, by the addi- 
tion of a recess chancel, enriched with a memorial win- 
dow, beautiful in design, and very appropriately repre- 
senting in its central triplet the figure of Saint Luke ; 
placed there in memory of our late estimable friend, most 
useful citizen, and life-long vestryman, Doctor William 
Taylor — " the good physician." 

The Presbyterian house of worship was built in 1819, 
and was the second church edifice erected in our village. 
Like the Episcopal church edifice, it has a remarkably 
well proportioned steeple. It has been decidedly im- 
proved within the last few years, and is now in much 
better condition than ever before. 

The Methodist house of worship, when first built in 
1822, stood in the middle of the street on which it now 
fronts. It formerly faced the south. You had to make 
quite a turn to the west to pass by it in going from Sen- 
eca to Pleasant street. Its change of base, with its oth- 
er changes both interior and exterior, are very great im- 
provements from its original condition. History informs 
us that the church edifice, as first built, " was ornament- 
ed with a spire ; but as it was thought by some of the 



26 HISTORY OF MANLIUS VILLAGE. 



congregation to betoken spiritual pride, it was torn down 
soon after it was built, and in its place was substituted a 
low tower." In subsequent changes and enlightenment, 
the tower was supplanted by the present steeple ; and 
now-a-days our good Methodist brethren seem to like 
nicely carpeted churches, with fine toned organs, loud 
sounding bells, and good high steeples, as well as any 
other folks. 

The Baptist house of w^orship was erected in 1828. As 
first built it was a plain, cheerless, Quaker-looking, two- 
story frame structure, without exterior architectural pre- 
tension or interior adornment. The Hght was admitted 
through a double row of old fashioued, rectangular win- 
dows all around the four sides of the edifice. There was 
no bell or steeple, and it had scarcely an}i;hing about it 
but its size to indicate that it was a house of worship. 
Its original internal construction and finish fully corres- 
ponded with its cold and forbidding external appearance. 
There was a plain heavy gallery all around the four in- 
terior sides of the building, reaching back and behind 
the pulpit, so that those sitting in that part of the gallery 
could overlook the preacher's manuscript, and see wheth- 
er he w^as preaching an old sermon. On entering the 
auditorium you were obliged to face the whole congrega- 
tion ; and on going into the pew you had to turn clear 
around in order to face the pulpit and minister. This 
arrangement was calculated to make modest people go to 
church in season, so as not to disturb the meeting, al- 
though I am not aware that it had that effect. 

Now you are fully apprised how much this edifice has 
been lately improved in all the respects I have mentioned. 
Our Baptist brethren have now the satisfaction of feel- 
ing that they have risen much higher in the world, and 
of knowing that they have, in the belfry of their nice lit- 
tle steeple, the clearest sounding bell in our village to 



HISTORY OF MANLIUS VILLAGE. 27 

proclaim tlieir faith and tlieir progress. Although I do 
not think their steeple is quite as high fi'om the ground 
as the Methodist steeple, yet as their building is farther 
up tlie hill, I think their steeple reaches a trifle nearer 
to the sky than does the Methodist steeple ; and I con- 
fidently expect, that when our Baptist friends repair 
again, they will make a sure thing of it by adding anoth- 
er story to their steeple, for I know of no good reason why 
they have not just as good a right to use a little more 
WOOD than our Methodist brethren, as they have to use 
a little more watek. 

The Episcopal steeple reaches nearer to heaven than 
any of our churches ; which is all right enough, because 
it is the oldest. But then it is not quite as ' high chuech ' 
as it was when it stood on the top of the hill. 



CHAPTEB VI. 

The oldest document in my possession relating to our 
village, is a subpoena issued by Robert Wilson as a jus- 
tice of the peace, in 1806. It was found in the hotel of 
the Messrs. Gilson, at the time the third story was re- 
cently added to it. The subpoena is directed to Joel 
Huntington, Reuben Squires, Thomas McClenthen, Syl- 
vanus Tousley and Youngs Ledyard, all old settlers here, 
and to one other name I cannot make out. It commands 
them to appear and testify in a suit between Gerard J. 
Van Slyke, plaintifl', and John C. Mervin, defendant. 

This Robert Wilson was postmaster here in 1803, and 
still filled that office in 1809. His early history is very 
interesting. During the revolutionary war he went to 
Fort Schuyler with Captain Gregg, who was his uncle. 



28 HISTORY OF MANLIUS VILLAGE. 

He was tbeu only thirteen years old ; and be was in that 
fort when his uncle was shot and scalped by the Indians. 
At the age of eighteen, young Wilson was appointed 
Ensign ; and soon after received a Lieutenant's commis- 
sion, and served through the war. He was at the taking of 
Cornwallis, and had the honor assigned to him of receiv- 
ing from the captured troops, and taking into his own 
hands, each one of the forty-two British standards sur- 
rendered to the Americans on that memorable occasion. 

One of the oldest land-marks in our village is the 
" Stone House," as it was formerly called, being the 
building altered, in 1834, for an Academy. Originally 
it was a two-story building of rough stone, with a good 
many rooms in it occupied for various purposes. It was 
so much altered when it w\as converted into an academic 
building as to be very unlike what it was originally. 
Fifty years ago it was probably one of the largest and 
most important business houses in the village, being 
fully occupied for stores, shops and offices. Leonard 
Kellogg had a book store in the east room of the first 
story, and there was a printing establishment over his 
store in which several of our village newspapers were 
printed, at different times, and also books and pamph- 
lets. A part of an old pamphlet came to my hands re- 
cently, which was printed in this office fifty-six years 
ago. The title page reads thus : " A Sermon on the in- 
fluence of Good and Bad Rulers, by Ebenezer I. Leav- 
enworth, Pastor of the United Congregations of Manlius 
and Pompey ; published by the request of said societies. 
Manlius, Printed by Kellogg <fe Clark, in the Stone 
House, corner of Seneca and Cherry Valley streets, 
1817." 

The United Congregations here referred to, were the 
"Manlius First Church," as it was called, formed at an 
early period, and whose old house of w^orship still stands 



HISTORY OF MANLIUS VILLAGE. 29 

half way between here audJamesville, and is now occu- 
pied as a barn ; and the " Pompey Third Church," at 
Pompey West Hill, now La Fayette. 

Mr. J. Calvin Smith has a perfect copy of this old 
sermon, which is one of great power, and contains much 
excellent advice very suitable for our rulers at all times. 

L have here also another relic, probably printed in the 
same printing office in which the sermon was printed. It 
is a shin-plaster for six and a quarter cents, issued by 
the Corporation of the Village of Manlius, fifty-six years 
ago. It is, as you see, in size, about five inches by two ; 
and printed from ordinary types on plain white paper, 
now considerably discolored. Across the right hand 
margin is a narrow black border having on it, in white 
letters, " six and a quarter cents ;" and across the left 
margin is a narrow ornamental border. The bill reads 
as follows : 

The Corporation of the Village of Manlius promises 
to pay the bearer Six and a quarter {Q\) Cents in cur- 
rent ban bills, on demand. jM^nlius, May 16, 1816. 

H. L. Granger, Pres't. 

J. O. Wattles, Treas. 

The last letter in the word bank is left out, and leaves 
the bill payable in Ban bills. You can judge as well as 
I what kind of money " ban bills" are. 

Hezekiah L. Granger, the then President of our vil- 
lage, was a brother of General Amos P. Granger. He 
was chosen a member of Assembly for this county in 
1814, and was appointed Sherifi* of the county in 1819. 
He was a man of talents, and one of the eminent phy- 
sicians with which our village has been favored. 

I have also a twenty-five cent bill issued by the Vil- 
lage Corporation two months after the date of the other 
bill, and which is got up on much finer paper and in a 
great deal better style. There is a spread eagle at the 



30 raSTOEY OF MANLIU8 VILLAGE. 

head of the bill, with the words " State of New York" 
over it ; a rising sua at one eud and a lion rampant at 
the other. Tliis bill was sent to me as a curiosity, a few 
years ago, by a friend residing in the Mohawk country, 
whither it had probably strayed lifty years ago. It 
reads thus: 

The Corporation of the Village of Manlius promises 
to pay the bearer, on demand, twenty-five cents in cur- 
rent bank bills at the office of their treasurer. August 
9th, 1816. 

J. O. Wattles, Treasurer. 

This bill is now an unpaid debt of Manlius Village. 
It amounts now, wilh interest for fifty-six and a half 
years, to $1.25. 

Mr. Wattles was a higlily respected citizen of our vil- 
lage ; at one time a Judge of the Court of Common 
Pleas, and a lawyer of some distinction. He was a 
brother of Mrs. Prudence Rockwell, Mrs. Setij B. Kel- 
logg, Mrs. Daniel Clark and Mrs. Joseph Smith, all 
highly respected heads o( families and old settlers here, 
now deceased, and also of Mrs. Hinman, who is still liv- 
ing at Syracuse. Mr. Wattles went to Indiana fifty 
years ago, and was soon after appointed a Circuit Judge 
by the Legislature. He died there highly respected. 
His brother, Simon D. Wattles, went from this place to 
the Niagara frontier, in the war of 1812, and was killed 
at the sortie of Fort Erie. His remains were originally 
interred in the old burial ground, in Buffalo, but were 
afterwards removed to a beautiful depository of the dead, 
in the suburbs of that city, called Forest Lawn Ceme- 
tery. " There, in an elevated open space, within ground 
one hundred feet square,' slightly enclosed, stands a fine 
monument of marble, twenty-two feet in height, which 
was erected by the corporate authorities of Buffalo, in 
1852." On the west side of this monument is an in- 



HISTORY OF MANLIUS VILLAGE. 31 



scription to the memory of Captain Simon D. Wattles 
and five other officers of the United States Army, who 
were engaged in the war of 1812, A short distance 
from the monument is also a slab over the grave of Cap- 
tain Wattles, having on it this inscription : " In memory 
of Captain Simon D. Wattles, of the United States Army, 
who was killed in the memorable sortie of Fort Erie on 
the 17th of September, 1814. Ae. 33 years. As a Chris- 
tian, he was pious and exemplary ; as a Soldier, brave 
and magnanimous; as a Citizen, benevolent and sincere." 

Below this inscription, Mr. Lossing says, was a verse 
of poetry, but it is too much effaced to be deciphered. I 
regret to say that in all the memorials as given by Mr. 
Lossing, there is a mistake in calling Capt. Wattles, Sim- 
eon, instead of Simon, his true Christian name. 

Jasper Wood, another of our Manlius soldier boys who 
went to the Niagara frontier, wrote to a friend in Man- 
lius a letter dated at Black Kock, June 24th, 1813, 
which contained this passage, rendered particularly in- 
teresting from its reference to military operations in 
Canada, of contemporaneous date : 

" Canada remains unconquered, although our troops 
have possession of Forts George and Erie, and have 
scouting parties in different directions through the coun- 
try. The fate of the Upper Province greatly depends 
on the fate of the lakes. Should we be favored with suc- 
cess, the British land force will be shortly subdued. Un- 
fortunately for our army, our General let slip the most 
favorable opportunity of taking the enemy. When our 
army crossed at Fort George, the enemy were in con- 
fusion, and our troops in the greatest spirits ; but such 
is the fact, he would not suffer them to pursue the ene- 
my until two or three days after. Then our troops suf- 
fered considerably- with the loss of tw^o Generals at For- 
ty Mile creek, from which place our troops have since 



32 



HISTORY OF MANLIUS VILLAGE. 



returned to Fort George. There is confusion with the 
paroled people of Canada. The British force them into 
service much against the wills of many. Others are anx- 
ious to serve their King." 

The dilator}'^ American General, alluded to by the 
writer of the letter, was General Dearborn, and the 
statements in this letter are confirmed by published his- 
tory. 

Another of our Manlius boys, who left his stand be- 
hind a mercantile counter to march as a soldier to Sack- 
etts Harbor, although complaining a little of lameness 
fi'om his long march, cheerfully wrote to his brother : 
" As the sayiog is, a soldier's life is a merry one ; but it 
does not suit me quite so well as the tape and bobbin es- 
tablishment, though I like it much better than I ex- 
pected." 

The battle of Queenston was fought in October, 1812. 
About fifteen years afterwards I- visited Queenston 
Heights, and picked up from the battle grouud, near 
General Brock's monument, this British button, on 
which is stamped the royal English crown. It will be 
recollected that the British General Brock received two 
wounds in that battle from balls sent by the rifles of our 
American sharp-shooters. The first was a slight wound 
in the wrist, the other a mortal one in the breast. I claim 
that the ball which wounded General Brock in the wrist, 
at the same time cut off this button from his coat sleeve. 
Assuming this to be so, you will admit that this is a most 
interesting relic. 

Among other old papers which have come to my hands, 
is a notice signed by H. L. Granger, Secretary, dated 
June 18th, 1814, sixty-nine years ago, and directed to 
Mr. Azariah Smith, informing him that he had been ap- 
pointed one of the committee to^make arrangements for 
the celebration of the Fourth of July ; and requesting 



HISTORY OF MA-NLIUS VILLAGE. 33 

*Mr. Smith to attend a meeting of the committee at Col- 
C. Clark's. Col. Clark kept a public house then 
where Mr. Fox afterwards, and more recently the War- 
ffens, kept tavern, at the comer of Seneca street and the 
road to Fayetteville. 

They used to give strong receipts in former days, as is 
witnessed by one given 4th of April, 1818, by Uriah Pal- 
mer : 

" Received of Azariah Smith one dollar in full of all 
debts, dues and demands, whatsoever name or nature, 
from the beginning of the world to the end of eternity." 

I have also, printed in handbill form, the " constitu- 
tion of the Manlius Branch Bible Society, adopted at a 
meeting of citizens holden for the purpose, at the Pres- 
byterian Meeting House in Manlius Village, May 31st, 
1821." The first officers of the society were, Rev. H. N. 
Woodruff, President; Eben Williams, William Eager, 
and Allen Breed, Vice-Presidents ; John Watson, Treas- 
urer ; Samuel L. Edwards, Secretary ; and twenty-six 
District Directors. 

A pamphlet printed in this village, in 1835, by H. M. 
Burdick, contains an oration delivered before the citi- 
zens of Manlius and tlie students of the Academy on the 
59th anniversary of American Independence, by M. P. 
Marsh, Esquire. 

Another of the old landmarks in our village was the 
Cotton Factory destroyed by fire some years ago, and 
which stood where Mr. Tremain's paper mill now stands. 
The foundation of the main portion of this paper mill is 
pa rtof the old factory. This factory was erected in 
1813. It was built with rough dressed stone, but in 
numerous parts of the front of the building were placed 
cut stones in which were carved the initials of the names 
of those persons in the village who had, during the con- 
struction of the building, contributed a bottle of rum or 



34 HISTORY OF MANLIUS VILLAGE. 

whiskey for the benefit of tlie masons. Tliese whiskey 
monuments were entirely clestroj-ed by the fire, and I 
have not been able to find a single one to exhibit to you 
on this occasion. • 

It was when a lad working in this factory, that the 
poet, Rockwell, first exhibited his happy genius for 
rhyming. " While employed in tending a picking ma- 
chine, he made a small book, on each right hand jiage 
of which was a picture of different parts of the factory, 
and on the opposite page a verse describing it. The 
outside was a front view of the factory, with an overseer 
on the foreground dragging a boy towards the door, and 
under it this verse : 

The factory life 

Is full of strife : 

I own I haJe it dearly ; 

And every Ixiy 

That they employ, 

Will o".vn the same, or nearly. 

Another of his juvenile rhymes reads thus : 

Geor£!e Wasbiugton 

Would like the fun: 

(Read this a little louder;) 

To go and court 

The British fort 

With cannon, balls and powder. 



HISTORY OF MANLIUS VILLAGE. 35 

CHAPTER VII. 

There have been published in Manlius Village, at dif- 
ferent times, seven or eight different newspapers. The 
first paper was printed as early as 1806, by Abram 
Romeyn, and was called the Derne Gazette. Our vil- 
lage once, for a short time, bore the name of Derne. 
This paper only lived about a year. It became so un- 
popular as to get the name of " the darned Gazette." 

The oldest village paper I have seen is the Manlius 
Times, bearing date July 18th, 1809, and printed by Leo- 
nard Kellogg.* Among the advertisements I find the 
following : " Just published and for sale at the Manlius 
bookstore, The relation of children of Christian Profes- 
sors to the church, considered in four sermons, by the 
reverend Joshua Leonard of Cazenoyia. Subscribers 
for the above are requested to call for their books." 

The ladies of our village, at that day, appear to have 
read novels, as they do now ; for I find among the new 
publications advertised as just received and for sale at 
the Manlius book store, were, Romantic Tales; The 
Lovers of La Vendee, and Thaddeus of Warsaw. 

A notice by Robert Earll, Sheriff, advertises the sale 
of some land at the house of Eli Parsons, in Manlius. 
This Parsons was a leader in Shays's rebellion. 

Robert Wilson, Postmaster, gives a hst of letters for 
persons in Manlius, Pompey, and Otisco, showing that 
the post-office in this village answered for those three 
towns, and Pompey then included the greater part of 
La Fayette. 

The Manlius Times of January 24th, 1815, published 
the Constitution of the " Auxiliary Bible and Common 
Prayer Book Society, in the Western District of the 
State of New York." This society was organized by 

*NoTE. — Mr. Kellogg oomnjandecl the Rifle Company raised in Man- 
lius Village in the war of 1812. 



36 HISTORY OF MANLIUS VILLAGE. 

Episcopalians, "who met in this village, January 18th, 
1815. Among its officers were the Rev. W. A. Clark, 
then a clergyman here, Recording Secretary ; Azariah 
Smith, Treasurer, and James O. Wattles and Ralph R.* 
Phelps, two members of a Board of tei' Managers.. This 
Bible Society was organized six years previous to the 
one mentioned in the hand bill before referred to. 

A number of the Onondaga Herald, dated February 
28th, 1819, printed and published in this village by 
Daniel Clark, contained this notice, which recalls an hon- 
ored name dear to us all. " Doctor William Taylor in- 
forms his friends and the public, that he has returned 
from Cazenovia to this village, and occupies the house 
formerly owned and occupied by Ralph R. Phelps, Esq. 
He will endeavor punctually to attend to all calls in the 
line of his profession. Manlius, Febuary 8th, 1819." 

An article in this number of the Herald, taken from 
the Albany Register, and headed, "Out at Last," reads 
thus : " We perceive that our neighbor, Mr. Buell, has 
at length concluded on which side of the fence to stand, 
in relation to politics. For a few months past, he has 
sat astride of the upper rail, and has been in apparent 
doubt on which side to dismount." 

A number of the Onondaga County Republican, dated 
September 12, 1821, published in this village by Thur- 
low Weed, contains this article, under the editorial head: 

" Ordination. — Bishop Hobart performed divine ser- 
vice in this village on Wednesday last. The Bishop ad- 
ministered the Communion, and nineteen persons re- 
ceived the ordinance of Confirmation. After the other 
solemnities were closed, Phineas L. Whipple was or- 
dained, and admitted to the office of Deacon. In the 
evening a Discourse was delivered by Mr. Whipple." 

This paper contains also an inteiesting account of the 
last sickness, death, and burial, at St. Helena, of Napo- 
leon Bonaparte. 



HISTOEY OF MANLIUS VILLAGE. 37 

In another number of his paper, dated March 6th, 
1822, Mr. Weed announced the death of Old Geimes, in 
the words of Ihe now venerable old song which first ap- 
peared about that time, and the first verse in which read 
then as it does now : 

Old Grimes is dead. That good old man 

We never shall see niorp ! 
He used to wear a long black eotti 

All bntton'd down before. 

Most of you probably read in the Fayetteville Record- 
er, last spring, an obituary notice of old Mother Grimes, 
and also poetic notices of her wayward son, and her 
daughter Polly, together with one of old Joseph. Grimes, 
the old man of all, who was probably the first emigrant 
of the Grimes family to this country. All these notices 
except one, as I must not forget to say, were written by 
poets of our own village. 

Mr. Weed's paper of March 27th, 1822, contains this 
notice which will be particularly interesting to our Meth- 
odist brethren : 

" The quarterly meeting of the Episcopal Methodist 
Society will be held on Saturday of this week, and the 
following day, at the new Chapel in this village. We 
are not insensible of the debt of gratitude we owe our 
friends for their liberal donations to assist in erecting a 
house of worship. In adjusting the accounts, we find 
the concern indebted in the sura of $438, besides a pay- 
ment of $275, on the land. We are equally anxious with 
the public, that the house should be painted, which will 
probably cost the further sum of $160, making in all 
$868, which is necessary to be raised to complete the 
building. Our Church government prohibits the sale or 
renting of seats as other denominations dc, to raise 
funds. As therefore our seats are all free, we must ne- 
cessarily appeal to the liberality of our brethren and 
iriends. We have never been disappointed in the mu- 



38 HISTORY OF MANLIUS VILLAGE. 

nificence of the public on such occasions, and are induced 
to believe that our expectations will again be realized." 

The Republican of April 3d, 1822, contained this no- 
tice under the editorial head : "The Methodist Episco- 
pal Chapel in this village will be dedicated on Friday 
the 12th day of April instant. Services to commence at 
eleven o'clock a. m." 

tn the same paper of April 3d, 1822, Nathan Williams, 
Postmaster, gives a list of letters remaining in his office 
April 1st, 1833 — eleven years ahead, when many of the 
persons named were dead, and Mr. Williams was no 
longer postmaster. Whether this was a mistake of the 
postmaster or his clerk, or of the printer, I cannot say, 
but as it was so near the first day of April, it excites a 
strong suspicion of " April Fool" by the printer's devil. 

It seems by the following notice that elopements were 
not unknown in former days : " Elopement. — Whereas 
Mahetable, my wife, has eloped from my bed and board 
without any just cause or provocation ; all persons are 
hereby forbid harboring or trusting the said Mahetable 
on my account, as I shall pay no debts of her contract- 
ing. Manlius, March 13th, 1822. 

Hazel Master." 

But it is gratifying to state that while some separated, 
others got married. In the Onondaga Republican of 
3d of November, 1824, published by Lawrin J >ewey , 
appeared the following notice: 

" Married in this village, on Sunday evening last, by 
the Rev. H, Woodruff, Daniel C. McClenthen to Miss 
Annis Bostwick, both of this village." 

This old married couple, as I am happy to say, still 
remain in our immediate neighborhood, and they are as 
closely united now as they were made to be by the re- 
ligious ceremony which took place over forty-eight 
years ago. The Manlius Almanac warns us to look out 



HISTORY OF MANLIUS VILLAGE, ' 39 

for a number of golden weddings " about these days." 
I am here tempted to introduce a jeu (fcym't which 
illustrates the good humor of our old, worthy and highl}' 
respected neighbor and friend, Elijah Rhoades, who was 
truly one of the men of mark in our village. C. C. Burr 
& Co. were merchants here at the time, and came out in 
the village paper with a flaming advertisement of their 
immense stock of goods, to which they were constantly 
receiving great additions. As a set off to their boasting 
notice, Deacon Rlioades issued this advertisement giving 
an alphabetical list of his goods : 

"Boston breaking! ! ! Some of onr brother mer- 
chants having threatened to buy jout Boston ! ! !, we 
have determined not to be outdone; and are now re- 
ceiving, and continually expecting, from Birmingham and 
Barkhamsted, Paris, Poland and Pompey Hollow, the 
following valuable additions to our very extensive stock 
of goods, viz : Apron-strings, axletrees ; breeches-but- 
tons, baby-boots; cable-tows, chicken-coops; dandy-shirts, 
dumpling dishes ; easy chairs, edge tools ; feather-f ms, 
fat-firkins ; grindstones, goose yokes ; hogshead-hoops, 
horn gun-flints ; imitation onion seed, itch ointment ; jug 
handles, (with jugs to 'em,) jacketing ; key-hole saws, 
kitchen-tongs ; lamp-black, linch-pins ; mop-sticks, mill- 
stones ; napkins, noggins; oyster-opener; pitchforks, pet- 
ticoat pins ; quill-wheels, quail traps ; rolling pins ; ruffle 
irons ; squash-skimmers, sneezing-powders ; tooth-sharp- 
eners, tinker-tools ; verdigris, vinegar-bottles : wlieel-bar- 
rows, wooden nutmegs ; yarn-sticks, yarn-winders, and 
Zany caps, for merry — & — drews : all of which, with an 
innumerable variety of other " notions,''^ they will sell as 
cheap as at another place soufh of Kamschatka, or 
west of Constantinople. Manlius, November 7th, 1830. 

E. & K. Rhoades." 

In the early part of this century, salmon and salmon 



40 HISTORY OF MANLIUS VILLAGE. 

trout were to be found in the Limestone creek, but with 
the settlement and improvement of the country, and di- 
minution of the water in that stream, and particularly 
since the rapids were arrested by building dams in or- 
der to make sites for mills, these fish have retired from 
our waters. 

In July, 1809, an extraordinary and terribly disastrous 
flood occurred here, of which the following account was 
published at the time: "Inundation. — Great damage 
has been done in this vicinity by the excessive rains 
which have fallen since Saturday evening last. It is 
believed such a flood has never before occurred since 
the settlement of the country. On Limestone creek, 
which runs through this village, there is not, perhaps, a 
bridge left standing. Mills, dams, houses and bridges 
are promiscuously swept away. Families and neighbors 
are prohibited a communication in the different villages 
through which this creek passes ; such is the immense 
body and rapidity of the water. I am informed that the 
dam, together with a part of the grist-mill, belonging to 
Mr. Sayles, in this town, has been carried away ; and 
there is but little expectation of saving the grist and saw 
mills of Messrs. Clark & Jackson, near this village. The 
extent of this dreadful inundation cannot yet be ascer- 
tained. So much have the roads been damaged by this 
flood, that the Utica mail, which fell due yesterday, was 
not received until just as the paper was going to press." 



HISTORY OF MANLIUS VILLAGE. 41 



CHAPTER VIII. 

I shall make no apology to my hearers on this occa- 
sion, or to the future readers of my history, for having 
introduced so many little details of local events and in- 
dividual action in these papers — trifling and unimport- 
ant as to some they may appear. We have high au- 
thority for the assertion in regard to biography, that 
minuteness constitutes its charm and its value ; and I 
claim for a Village History, and particularly for a his- 
tory of the incipient or early state of a village, a similar 
literary position. Such a history, although more or less 
instructive to all classes, is intended especially for the 
information and entertainment of the descendents and 
successors in position of the early fathers and founders, 
to whom these items, these little incidents in the Hves of 
their departed predecessors and friends, and even the 
mere incidental mention of their names in these details, 
become trebly interesting and useful, from the reverence 
and gratitude which they excite ; from the events of 
past days which they recall to the mind ; and from the 
stimulation to thought and reflection which they occa- 
sion. As, therefore, I do not wi'ite for the general pub- 
lic, I do not feel accountable to that public for the exer- 
cise of my judgment or my taste in the selection of my 
materials. I shall therefore proceed in my own way 
with another chapter in my Village History. 

Among the curious characters once residing in our 
neighborhood were^the Hermit and Tom Webber. Tom 
was a little man, and used to clean our wells, for which 
he had a remarkable faculty. He would go to the bot- 
tom of our deepest wells, and scrape up and fiU more 
buckets with old tin cups, rusty tin dippers, broken 



42 HISTORY OF MANLIUS VILLAGE. 

crockery, old dishcloths and other debris ; and keep a 
person at the mouth of the well longer and harder at 
work in pulling up and emptying the buckets, than any 
other man. He had a remarkable aptitude for explor- 
ing and making discoveries of foreign matter in those 
subterranean regions, and would often remain so long 
below, after finishing his job, as to excite a strong sus- 
picion that he was stopping there to wash his feet before 
coming up into the world again ! As an expert well- 
cleaner, Tom was a useful citizen ; and the people of our 
village have undergone very great inconvenience, for 
many years, for want of a good workman in his line. 
But Tom had many faults. He icould get tipsy. He 
would often greatly disturb the neighborhood by his 
noises, and use foul language ; and withal, he was, under 
all circumstances, stubborn as a mule. 

An amusing instance of his mulish obstinacy is well 
remembered by one of- our citizens. He was in Mr. 
Hopkins' store one day, and used very unbecoming lan- 
guage there, in presence of a lady who was making some 
purchases. For this, Mr. Hopkins chicled him ; and re- 
quired Tom to make an apology for his rude conduct. 
This, Tom would not do. Mr. Hopkins thereupon took 
down a rawhide, and used it on Tom's back with a hearty 
good will, occasionally stopping to give Tom a chance 
to make his apology. But as Tom continued to be 
mum, Mr. Hopkins renewed his labors of reform by the 
thorough application of his horsewhip, and gave his vic- 
tim such a castigation as scarcely ever was before given 
to man or beast. But it was all to little purpose ; for 
while Mr. Hopkins, with the perspiration running down 
his face, became exhausted by his great labors, and had 
finally to give up his job, Tom stood there, erect as a 
sloop's mast, and cool as a cucumber ! The hide of no 
rhinoceros could have stood such a flagellation better 



HISTORY OF MANLIUS VILLAGE. 43 

than did Tom's hide. Tom made no apology at the end 
of the affair; having, no doubt, made up his mind that 
to take such a drubbing and make an apology too, 
would be paying a debt twice ;* and he had no idea of 
being taken in by merchant Hopkins in that way. 

The further story is told about Tom, that being once 
arrested by a constable for some offence, he was pin- 
ioned and tied for safe keeping to a post in a cellar. 
The officer had occasion to leave him in this condi- 
tion for a short time, and on his return found that his 
bird had taken flight. Tom, as the story goes, had 
gnawed off' the rope which tied him to the post, and 
made his escape. The next that was seen of the gentle- 
man, Thomas Webber, Esquire, was walking in the 
streets of Manlius Village, with the dignified tread of a 
freeman ! 

What if Tom was a British deserter in the War of 
1812, did he not come over from Canada, and enlist here 
and fight under the stars and stripes ? and was not such a 
patriot entitled to his liberty ? 

But by far the most interesting character in our 
neighborhood was the Hermit. He had his cabin in the 
woods on Dry Hill, where he led the solitary life of a re- 
cluse for many years. Common report assigned, as the 
cause of his solitary life, that he had been crossed in 
love. He used to visit our village occasionally with staff 
in hand, and a long cape over his shoulders, which prob- 
ably once belonged to an old great coat. He called at 
my office one summer day, walked in without knocking, 
and with almost stealthy move came to the table where 
I was sitting. I was conscious that some object had en- 
tered the room, but as I was busy, I did not look around 
or see him until he came close to me. He wished to 
know whether I had any money for him. I told him. No ; 
as was the fact. He said he was informed that I had 



44 HISTORY OF MANLID8 VILLAGE. 

several hundred dollars belonging to him. I asked him 
who told him so. He said a sperrit — that a sperrit came 
into his cabin one night, while he was lying on his bed, 
and told him that I held this money for him, and that 
he could get it by calling on me for it. I asked him if 
he saw the sperrit. He said he did; he saw the sperrit 
come in the door. I told him it was a lying sperrit. He 
said it must be so if I said it, and went his way. 

The poor old man had saved a small sum of money, I 
think about $150, which he had loaned to a merchant in 
Fayetteville. The merchant failed in business, and the 
hermit lost it all. His cabin soon after burned down, 
and I understand that some of his friends living in the 
East came and took him away. 

But I must not forget to repeat an anecdote concern- 
ing one of the ancient ladies of our village, an old maid. 

Formerly a small frame dwelling house stood on 
Seneca stieet, between the house of Doctor T. A. Moore 
and the one next east of it. In this dwelling, during 
the latter days of its existence, there resided two elderly 
ladies, Mrs. Dunham and her maiden sister, Miss Nancy 
Barker. One day, about noon, a cloud of smoke from 
the garret pervaded the premises, revealing the unwel- 
come fact that a fire had broken out in that part of the 
building. In her alarm and perplexity. Miss Nancy 
rushed down to the store of Smith <fe Hopkins, where 
she found Mr. Joseph Smith. She inquired of him 
whether Mr. Hopkins was in. Mr. Smith replied that 
he was rot, and asked the lady whether he could not 
wait upon her as well as Mr. Hopkins. Miss Barker 
said he could not. It should here be remarked that the 
lady had great confidence in Mr. Hopkins, who had usu- 
ally attended to her business. After waiting for some 
time, Mr. Hopkins not having yet appeared, Mr. Smith 
again approached the lady, and asked her if he 



HISTORY OF MANLIUS VILLAGE. 45 

could not attend to her business. Miss Nancy replied, 
" perhaps you can," and deliberately added, " Mr. Smith, 
I do really believe that our house is on fire." Mr. Smith 
at once hurried out of doors, but before he reached the 
house he saw the flames bursting from the roof. The 
building was entirely destroyed. The fire had made its 
destruction certain while Miss Nancy was taking her own 
time to tell her story. 

Note. — I am the happy possessor of Miss Barker s autograph : also 
of the autographs of a large number of our " Old Settlers," iucluding 
that of the first white child born in the County of Onondaga, much of 
whose early wedded life was passed in our Village, 



CHAPTER IX. 



ManUus Village has not been wanting in citizens of 
poetic and artistic genius, of diversified talents, decided 
patriotism, great professional skill, and of executive and 
administrative ability of a high order. 

It was here that James O. Kockwell first displayed his 
poetic genius. Cut down at the early age of twenty-four, 
" he died too young to have developed all his powers of 
mind, and yet old enough to have marked him as one of 
rich, touching, pure, and high gifts. Bom a poet, there 
was chivalry in all his thoughts, and he was endued with 
native sensibiUties of whatever was sublime, touching, 
and beautiful. As a true poet, his eye was open, and 
his ear alive to every hue and sound in nature ; and he 
deeply quaffed the waters of those sweUing founts, which, 
while they refine the heart, do steal away its stern and 
stronger substance." 



46 HISTORY OF MANLIUS VILLAGE. 

Among his other productions, wns a prize poem pub- 
lished in one of the annuals of his day. Commencing 
his career as a compositor in a printing office, he became 
associate editor of a newspaper in Boston, and after- 
wards was sole editor of the Providence Patriot, at 
which place he died June 4th, 1831. 

A beautiful poem was inscribed to his memory by the 
poet Whittier ; and the name of James O. Rockwell, 
with some selected specimens of his poetic effusions, has 
an honored place in Griswold's Poets and Poetry of 
America. 

Among our native artists, I may make admiring but 
melancholy mention of Jeremiah Nims, a promising 
painter, also cut off in very early life. A mural tablet 
to his memory may be seen in the Episcopal church ed- 
ifice, in our village, placed there by a gentleman of re- 
fined taste, a resident of Canandaigua, where young 
Nims had pursued his studies. This gentleman became 
so deeply interested, by the proofs, under his own eye, 
of the promising talents of the youthful artist, as to vol- 
unteer this tablet to his memory. The inscription is in 
these words : '* To the Genius and Worth of J. Nims, 
Artist, 1842." 

Another of our native artists, i^ugustus Rockwell, 
brother of the poet, is an admirable portrait painter,now 
most successfully practicing his art in the city of Buffa- 
lo. High evidences of the skill of this self-taught ar- 
tist are to be seen in our village, and I have three of 
them in my own dwelling. 

Another of our native boys of whom we have reason 
to be proud was Azariah Smith, Junior. At the age of 
eighteen, with the prospect of a joyous life before him, 
he waived its enticements, and yielding to Ihe counsels 
and wishes of Godly parents, be consecrated himself, soul 
and body, to the great work of Christian Missions in 



HISTORY OF MANLIUS VILLAGE. 47 

heathen lands. Inheriting a good share of the tenacity 
of purpose, steady application, and persevering energy 
of his remarkable father, our late honored fellow citizen, 
Azariah Smith, he devoted nearly seven years to the 
most diligent and thorough preparatory study, to make 
sure his competency and usefulness in the missionary 
field of Western Asia, wliither he embarked in Novem- 
ber, 1842. 

To insure his greater usefulness as a clergyman, he 
had, before leaving his native country, by a proper 
course of study, made himself a competent physician ; 
and for the same useful purpose, on his arrival at the 
field of his future labors, h^ studied and mastered sev- 
eral foreign languages — Turkish, Arabic and Armenian. 

In that distant land, he, for about nine years, per- 
formed the most arduous, self-denying and perilous la- 
bors in the great cause in which he had embarked, leav- 
ing, at his sudden death, at the early age of thirty-five, 
an enviable reputation, scarcely second to any of his dis- 
tinguished predecessors in the missionary field. 

The editors of a standard Review said of him : " As 
the author of valuable papers on Meteorology and Syr- 
ian Antiquities, published in the American Journal of 
Science, Azariah Smith, Junior, took rank with the best 
scholars in the land." 

Of the medical profession, I need only give you the 
endeared name of Doctor William Taylor, for more than 
fifty years a highly successful practicing physician here, 
and honored throughout the State as one standing at 
the very head of his profession. 

Although delicacy will prevent me from giving the 
name, yet truth will recognize the fact, that we have now 
living among us a descendant of one of the most hon- 
ored of our deceased citizens, who, in connection with 
his position in the medical profession, is recognized as 



48 HISTORY OF MANLIUS VILLAGE. 



one of the best chemists in the State. When anything 
occurs, in any part of our State, requiring minute chem- 
ical investigation, they send to our little retired village 
of Manlius to find a man to do it. 

In law, our late fellow citizen, Nicholas P. Randall, 
occupied a prominent position among the great jurists 
and advocates of the State. And we might here also 
lay some claim to James R. Lawrence, another of our 
great lawyers, who here pursued his legal studies, and 
commenced practice in his profession. 

For commanding business talents, sound judgment, 
rare faculty in the combination of numbers, and for con- 
summate legislative and executive abilit}-, we point with 
pride to Azariah Smith, Senior. 

In the war of 1812 a rifle company was organized here, 
commanded by officers who were then residents of this 
village ; and we furnished a Major General for the army 
of the Union, in the late slaveholder's rebellion. 

The rifle company to which I have referred, was in 
the battle of Queenston, and among the few brave mili- 
tia that crossed the river. This company behaved with 
great gallantry, and received the approbation and thanks 
of the commanding officer on that occasion. 

Captain Simon D. Wattles, of this village, as I have 
before observed, was killed in the memorable sortie of 
Fort Erie, in September, 1814 ; and his name has an 
honored place on the fine monument erected at Buffalo, 
by the corporate authorities of that city, in memory of 
the gallant officers of the United States Army who fell 
in the war of 1812. 

Citizens of our village have, for fourteen years, been 
members of the Assembly, the lower house of oui- State 
Legislature. They have, for fifteen years, been members 
of the Senate of this State. One of them, Doctor Wil- 
liam Taylor, was for six successive years a member of 



HISTORY OF MANLIUS VILLAGE. 49 

the House of Eepresentatives of the United States : and 
one of our former and early citizens, General Granger 
occupied the same station for four years. Our village 
has furnished to our county, citizens who have filled, and 
some of them repeatedly, the various offices of Sheriff, 
County Clerk, Surrogate, and Judges and First Judges, 
with numerous other offices of trust and responsibility. 
We have furnished, in a former citizen, Hervey Rhoades, 
a Superintendent of the Onondaga Salt Springs ; and in 
another former citizen, brought up here, Addison Gard- 
ner, a Lieutenant Governor of the State of New York. 
We have furnished to the city of Syracuse some of its 
earliest and most competent business men ; to the city 
of New York many enterprising and honorable mer- 
chants ; and men of high integrity and business talents 
to other parts of our country. 

In 1824, our then prominent citizen, Azariah Smith, 
was appointed by the Legislature of this State an Elect- 
or of President and Vice President of the United States. 
While our village enjoys the honor of having furnished 
so many prominent actors in public affairs, and in those 
matters which constitute the history, not only of the Vil- 
lage and Town of Manlius, but of the County of Onon- 
daga, and the State of New York ; so also to one of our 
recently deceased citizens, the honorable Joshua V. H. 
Clark, is justly due the credit of having prepared the 
best, and indeed the only minute and authentic pub- 
lished history of the County of Onondaga, and of its sev- 
eral towns, and of these regions. 

In 1846, a popular election was held in this State to 
choose delegates to a Convention to frame a new State 
Constitution. It was designed that this body should be 
composed of the best and most eminent citizens of the 
State ; men quahfied, by their inteUigence, their talents, 
and abilities for constitutional construction, their sound 



50 HISTORY OF MANLIUS VILLAGE. 



judgment, high integrity and patriotism, for the just dis- 
charge of its important duties. This County of Onon- 
daga was entitled to four delegates in that convention. 
The county contained then, besides the large city of 
Syracuse, seventeen towns, and more than fifty villages, 
and a population of upwards of seventy thousand. Un- 
der these circumstances, tico of these four delegates, to 
which this county was entitled in that Constitutional 
Convention, were taken from this little village of Man- 
lius. Doctor William Taylor and Elijah Ehoades, gen- 
tlemen of opposite party politics, were those two honored 
delegates. If any village, town, or city in the State of 
New York, with a similar population of one thousand, 
can show a better record than this, we will be happy to 
have them do so. 

I desire here also to bear gi'ateful testimony to the de- 
cided usefulness and Christian worth of two most excel- 
lent ladies of this village, who went to their final reward 
many years ago. I allude to Mrs. Laura Huntington 
and Mrs. Prudence Rockwell. In the hours of trial and 
sickness, their friendly and faithful services could ever 
be depended on at a moment's warning. The}^ were 
truly Mothers in Israel. 

But, my friends, all of the worthy, useful, and eminent 
old citizens I have named, are now in their gi'aves. Most 
of them are here interred ; and one of the duties devolv- 
ed on us, is to honor and adorn the gi'ounds which con- 
tain those graves. I deeply regret that the remains of 
our esteemed and highly respected old citizen, Elijah 
Rhoades, do not lie in the same graveyard with those of 
his old friends. I understand that while on his death 
bed, the mention of the name of Manlius called forth 
from him an expression of love for his old neighbors, and 
brought tears to his eyes. He died and was buried at 
Pittsfield, Massachusetts. I trust that his remains will 



HISTORY OF MANLIUS VILLAGE. 



yet be removed to our own old cemetery, and his }i;rave 
have a place among those of so many of his early and 
life-long friends. 

Our village acquired, at one time, a highly respected 
and commanding character for one of its size, not only 
for the marked intelligence and influence of quite a num- 
ber of its prominent citizens, but from the high position 
and success of the old Academy. This character, so far 
at least as the advantages of education are concerned, 
will now probably be renewed in a more decided and 
advanced form by the new St. John's School. The high 
discipline and thorough standard of education here es- 
tablished and carried into operation, must make this 
school a regular and permanent feeder to our colleges ; 
and the intercourse « hich will naturally grow up, and in- 
crease between its Teachers and the Presidents and Pro- 
fessors of our Colleges, as well as other gentlemen of let- 
ters, will become a novel and interesting feature in our 
future Village History. 

Last year they had in Pompey what they called a Re- 
union of the old inhabitants of that town and their descen- 
dants. As I was not born in Pompey, and never lived 
there, I did not suppose that I had any business to go to 
their Re-union, so I did not go up. I understand that 
they had a nice time ; and I am glad of it. But in look- 
nig over their brags and proceedings, as published in 
the papers, I did not see any notices taken of Manilas, 
or of her old settlers and remarkable men. I am sorry, 
therefore, that I did not go up, and state, in answer to 
the challenge there given, what I have said here in vin- 
dication of their characters and their memory ; for with 
all the good luck and reputation of cur Pompey neigh- 
bors, I must be allowed to say, that they have had iio 
such business giants as Azariah Smith ; no more intelli- 
gent merchants than Elijah Rhoades ; no such great law- 



52 HISTORY OF MANLIUS VILLAGE. 

yers as Nicholas P. RandalJ ; and no such eminent phy- 
sicians as Djjtoi- William Taylor. Manilas is ahead ! 

There are very few villages in the State of New York 
that are surrounded by a greater number of attractive 
objects, worthy of the attention of visitors and tourists 
as well as of our own citizens, than the Village of Man- 
lius. The fine views from our hills are remarkable for 
their number, their l)eauty, and their extent. Our two 
water-falls, so very near the village, although shorn by 
inappreciative hands, of much of their former wild, pic- 
turesque, and commanding scenery, are still vei-y beau- 
tiful, and well worthy of repeated visits. Then there 
are higher up in West Limestone Creek, the remarkable 
falls known as Pratfs Falls — a sheet of water beautiful- 
ly passing down an almost perpendicular precipice of 
one hundred and forty feet, and presenting, particularly 
in high water, a magnificent appearance. There are 
very interesting falls also in Butternut Creek, near 
Jamesville, and two very beautiiul and romantic falls in 
East Limestone Creek, near Delphi. The commanding 
falls in Chitteuango Creek are as high, if not higher, than 
Pratt's Falls, with a greater body of water. 

We have also, in our immediate neighborhood, the 
Green Ponds of De Witt, with their romantic Indian his- 
tory ; and the two sisters or Siamese Green Lakes, in 
our own town ; also the ] )eep Spring of Indian fame ; 
the two Ice-holes, where ice may be found throughout 
the year ; and the splendid elevation and beautiful 
groves of " Anderson's Woods." 

We can dig for ancient Indian and French relics, bar- 
barian and Christian, in Indian Hill ; and in the sites of 
numerous Indian graveyards and old forts near us in 
Pompey, where no doubt still lie embedded, if not Cardiff 
giants, at least antiquities of rare interest which are gen- 
uine. 



HISTORY OF MANLIUS VILLAGE. 53 

And here I may properly step aside to express my re- 
gret at the inconsiderateness of early days> in not ma- 
king, at the proper time, a collection of the numerous In- 
dian and French relics found in this neighborhood; 
and over the mistaken generosity of our old citizens, in 
sending these historic curiosities to New York, Albany, 
New Haven, and other places, instead of preserving them 
here. But for this misconceived generosity, that rare 
object of interest found in this neighborhood, fifty years 
ago, and known as " The Onondaga Stone," now three 
hundred and forty-six years old ! would here grace our 
Academic Halls, instead of occupying a foreign position 
in the Albany Institute. 

But to return to our subject. There can be taken 
from Manlius Village pleasant excursionary rides to vari- 
ous interesting points and objects, other than those 
above named, and among them, to Cazenovia Lake ; to 
Chittenango Springs ; to Oneida Lake ; to the DeRuy- 
ter Reservoir ; to the villages aronud us, and to Syra- 
cuse ; and there are facilities for communication by vari- 
ious railroads with all parts of the State. 

In our vicinity may also be found two caves. The one 
most extensively explored is known to contain many 
specimens of dog-tooth spar,'stalactites, and stalagmites. 
This cave was closed many years ago, on account of real 
or supposed danger to the lives of visitors. The other 
cave is described as a great singularity. It is several 
hundred feet deep, but has never been thoroughly ex- 
plored. It is a standing invitation or challenge to en- 
terprise and hazard to explore its hidden recesses. 

Of all the various and numerous curiosities and places 
of resort to which I have referred, Manlius Village is the 
geographical centre, with convenient access to all of 
them. 

But as "of all elements of scenery, water is the most 



54 HISTOBY OF MANLIUS VILLAGE. 

various in character, and .capable of the greatest diver- 
sity of eflfect," so those singular bodies of water known as 
the Green Lakes, or Green Ponds, constitute the rarest 
natural scenery in our neighborhood, and they have re- 
ceived the greatest attention of our geologists, and other 
learned and scientific men. 

A distinguished geologist thinks that the deep green 
color of the water is probably owing to the partial de- 
composition of the sulphureted hydrogen which it holds 
in solution. Another writer seems to think that this ap- 
parent greenness is occasioned by the reflection of the 
dense evergreen wood which surrounds these lakes on all 
sides ; for, when taken up from the surface in a glass, 
the water is perfectly clear and transparent, and good 
also to the taste, although, when drawn from the depths 
below, it has a strong sulphurous taste, and a thorough 
brimstone odor. 

The bowl-like form of the hollows containing these 
lakes, suggests to visitors the idea that they occupy the 
craters of old volcanoes. But the more settled opinion 
of geologists seems to be, " that these basins have at- 
tained their present form by the subsidence or dropping 
down of a circular area, forming a broad pit with precip- 
itous sides. The draping of the steep banks with woods, 
and the collection of rain and spring water in them until 
they are half filled, complete the process by which na- 
ture would seem to have formed these mimic craters 
and their still lakes." 

A long and highly interesting article in regard to these 
lakes, from the pen of an observant visitor, appeared a 
number of years ago in the Knickerbocker Magazine. 
Another article appeared in the Philadelphia Register. 
During the sitting of the Convention of American geolo- 
gists, in New York city, a few years ago, Mr. Ledj^ard 
Lincklaen, a gentleman of intelligence and research from 



HISTOEY OF MANLIUS VILLA.GE. 55 

Cazenovia, now no more, react a paper on the Green 
Lakes of Manlius, wliicli excited a great deal of attention 
from the convention. The elder Professor Silliman has 
also noticed them in his Scientific Journal. 

Doctor L.C. Beck, in that great work, The Natural 
History of New York, introduces into the department of 
mineralogy this mention of one of our Green Lakes, de- 
scribed in geological reports and scientific tours as Lake 
Sodom: 

" Water drawn from the depth of 168 feet was found 
to be strongly charged with sulphureted hydrogen. On 
being afterwards tested, it blackened nitrate of silver 
powerfully, and gave copious precipitates with solutions 
of oxalate of ammonia and muriate of barytes, indica- 
ting the presence of sulphureted hydrogen and sulphate 
of lime. Its specific gi-avity was scarcely above that of 
distilled water, and it contained not even a trace of ox- 
ide of iron. Thus we have here an immense natural sul- 
phur bath; a fact which exhibits, in a most striking man- 
ner, the extent and power of the agency concerned in 
the evolution of this gas." 

Our late fellow citizen, Mr. J. V. H. Clark, in his his- 
tory of Onondaga, and also in several communications 
to the newspapers, has taken a good deal of notice of 
our Green Lakes. In one of his newspaper articles he 
mentions the interesting fact, that about fifteen years 
ago a young man from Syracuse committed suicide by 
drowning himself in one of the Green Ponds in DeWitt. 
Upon the most thorough search, at the time of his dis- 
appearance, his body could not be found ; having, no 
doubt, been carried to the bottom by the weights he had 
attached to it. Nearly two years afterwards the body 
was found floating on the surface of the lake in a com- 
plete state of preservation. " The cold temperature at 
the bottom, and the sulphurous substances with which 



56 HISTORY OF MANLIUS VILLAGE. 

at that depth the water is unpregnated, prevented de- 
composition and decay." 

In going to our Green Lakes, from this village, I 
should advise visitors to go over Dry Hill, and for va- 
riety sake, after visiting " Lake Sodom,'' return by way 
of " Satan's Kingdom." 



CHAPTER X. 

To Manlius Village belongs the honor of having held 
the first public meeting in the Union, at which, in ad- 
vance of the great Presidential contest of 1828, DeWitt 
Clinton was nominated as a candidate for the office of 
President of the United States. This meeting was held 
in Bickford's Hotel ; and Doctor WilHam Taylor, Nich- 
olas P. Eandall, and Col. John Sprague were among its 
most prominent actors. The resolutions adopted were 
drawn up by the former gentleman, a task for which he 
was eminently qualified by his intelligence and political 
experience, and by his great partiality for the illustrious 
statesman thus nominated ; and the proceedings of that 
Manlius Village meeting had a wide spread publication 
and circulation. A portion of those present withdrew to 
another room in the hotel, and there nominated General 
Jackson for President. 

Little did those joyous and sanguine friends of Clinton 
then anticipate the early and providential affliction which 
at this time awaited them ; for it was only a few weeks 
after this auspicious nomination was made, that the bells 
of our village churches were solemnly tolled, at an early 



HISTORY OF MANLIUS 'S^LLAGE. 57 



hour of the morning, on receipt of the melancholy intelli- 
gence of Governor Clinton's sudden death at Albany. 

General Jackson and John Quincy Adams then became 
the candidates of their respective friends for the presi- 
dency ; and the canvass was a very exciting one. Many 
of the leading Clintonians, upon the loss of their favorite 
candidate, became supporters of Jackson ; for it wa^ 
well understood that Jackson entertained very favorable 
views of Clinton ; and did not the General, not a long 
time before, at a grand festival got up in his honor in 
Tammany Hall, either in ignorance of New York poli- 
tics and of the political topography of that Hall, or in 
the exercise of that independence for which he was no- 
ted, rise in his place, and there, to the utter dismay and 
consternation of the old Bucktails and Anti-Clintonian 
Sachems there assembled, give as a toast : — " DeWitt 
Clinton, Governor of the great and patriotic State of New 
York." 

A novel practice was introduced that year for the first 
time, of calling upon the militia soldiers, at their military 
parades, to express their preferences between the two 
presidential candidates. This practice was highly rep- 
rehensible, and unfair also, particularly where one of the 
candidates was a noted military chieftain, and the other 
a plain civilian. 

At a company drill in Main street, the officer in com- 
mand requested all those members of the company who 
were in favor of Jackson for President to move forward 
three paces. About three-fourths of the men stepped 
forward. But the standard bearer, a tall man, standing 
erect and holding the staff to which were attached the 
Stars and Stripes, was an Adams man, and he and the 
rest of the comjDany stood their ground. So the Adams 
boys, although greatly provoked at the taking of a polit- 
ical vote under such circumstances, got the rig on the 



58 HISTORY OF MANLIDS VILLAGE. 

Jackson boys by charging them with ilesertlng their colon. 

But the men were not to bhime for introducing the 
shameful practice to which I have adverted. It was a 
poHtical trick to get men to commit themselves to a par- 
ticular candidate, for which the officers of the company, 
or their sujDeriors, alone were responsible, and of which 
they ought to have been heartily ashamed. 

At that period, the voting in this State occupied three 
days' time, and the whole town was one election district, 
DeWitt then formed a part of Manlius. On Monday 
mon-ing the poll was held at Jamesville ; in the after- 
noon at Orville ; on Tuesday morning at Britton's Set- 
tlement, now^ CoUamer ; in the afternoon at Manhus Cen- 
tre ; on Wednesday morning in this village ; and in the 
afternoon at Fayetteville. Those of us who attended all 
of these places had a hard time of it. It was necessary 
to watch the polls at all these places, for illegal voters 
would go to a distant part of the town where they were 
not known, and watch an opportunity to slip in their 
votes when they were not noticed by the challengers. A 
Pompey man went to Britton's Settlement, in the extreme 
north part of the town, and voted the Jackson ticket. 
Twenty years afterwards I made him confess his rascali- 
ty in open court. I brought a suit on a note for Mr. 
Clement of Pompey. The maker of the note plead usu- 
ry, and called upon this Pompey rascal to prove the usu- 
ry. On my cross examination, he stated that he lived 
in Pompey, and how long he had lived there. But, said 
I, you did not live there in 1828. " Yes I did," was the 
answer. But, said I, you voted in Manlius that year. 
He saw I had caught him, and had to answer " yes." 
This confession of his fraudulent rascahty, on the top of 
a character not over and above sound for truth, destroy- 
ed his testimony, and my client, Mr. Clement, gained his 
suit. 



■■>■ 



HISTORY OF MANLIUS VILLAGE, 59 

In submitting these notes relating to the history of 
our village and its former inhabitants, I should be guilty 
of neglect and do gi*eat injustice, did I fail to make spe- 
cial mention of the wise, considerate, and liberal action of 
a number of our old citizens now in their graves, in es- 
tablishing the Manlius Academy. It was in 1834, that 
decisive steps were first taken to accomplish this object. 
Prominent among those of our citizens who zealously 
entered into this project, were Azariah Smith, Nicholas 
P. Randall and Doctor William Taylor ; and these gen- 
tlemen were selected as the first temporary board of 
trustees. Under an act of the Legislature incorporating 
Maolius Academy which passed that body April 13th, 
1835, Mr. Smith, Mr, Randall and Doctor Taylor, to- 
gether with Silas Williams, Peter R. Reed and the four 
clergymen of the village, namely, Algernon S. Hollister, 
Carlos Smith, David Bellamy and R. Houghton, became 
the first permanent Board of Trustees. ' 

A considerable sum was raised by voluntary subscrip- 
tion in the village and among farmers in the neighbor- 
hood, and the present Academy grounds purchased. To 
enlarge the original grounds, the dwelling house now oc- 
cupied by Mr, Elijah E, Smith, which then stood close 
to the Academy building, was removed to its present po- 
sition. 

I have described to you what a dismal-looking build- 
ing the old " Stone House" was, before it was turned in- 
to an Academy. With a view to such conversion, it 
was thoroughly overhauled and substantially repaired, 
the rooms re- arranged, and newly papered and painted, 
the outside plastered and painted, and a third story and 
belfry added to it ; and it was thus made a very respect- 
able building. Although somewhat singular in its out- 
ward appearance, so much so that Mr. Azariah Smith, in 
a communication to the Regents of the University, aniu- 



60 HISTORY OF MANLIUS VILLAGE. 

sin^'ly said that a stranger in looking at it would be apt to 
ask" what's that?", it served a most excellent purpose, 
and there were, at that time, very few academic build- 
ings in the State that surpassed it in convenience. I 
ought not here to omit stating the fact, that while Mr. 
Azariah Smith made the largest subscription in the first 
instance, he, several years afterwards, most generously 
canceled, without payment, a mortgage for over seven 
hundred dollars which he held against the academic 
property. This he did to enable the institution to come 
under the oversight and visitation of the Regents of the 
University, which could not be done while its property 
was under incumbrance. 

Instruction in the Academy was commenced in May, 
1835, with fifty scholars in the male and sixty in the fe- 
male department. The catalogue, at the end tf the first 
year, shows an attendance of 139 males and 105 females, 
making a total of 244. 

One reason why the institution started with so large a 
number of scholars probably was that there having been 
no Academy here before, a hirge number were ready to 
enter the institution at the outset, and some entered it at 
a more advanced age than is usual. 

The institution, whose commencement was so flatter- 
ing, continued to prosper for many years, and so as that, 
in the course of the yeai 1840, there were in attendance 
274 different students, 62 of whom studied the languages. 

The collection of minerals was commenced at this 
time, composed not only of specimens found in this re- 
gion, but of many brought by students from distant pla- 
ces and different States, and some from foreign lands. 
Each specimen was numbered and entered in a book 
with the donor's name ; and the whole formed an inter- 
esting cabinet. 



HISTORY OF MANLIUS VILLAGE. 61 

The multiplication of Academies about us ; the large 
number of scholars who only attended the winter term ; 
the great difficulty of procuring boarding places in our 
village, with a desire for very cheap board ; the consoli- 
dation of school districts, with the institution of graded 
schools ; the increased salaries of teachers and conse- 
quently of tuition fees, rendered necessary. by the chang- 
es of the times, with the increase of the expenses of such 
institutions for fuel and other necessaries ; the desire for 
cheap schools ; and finally the war of the Rebellion, and 
the subsequent introduction of the system of free schools, 
.so diminished the number of candidates in this vicinity 
for academic instruction and classical education, that, 
having no endowment fund to fall back upon and no re- 
ligious organization to give it special support, Manlius 
Academy could no longer be sustained. We have the 
satisfaction.however, of knowing that it has accomplish- 
ed an immense amount of good in the days of its pros- 
perity ; and many of our young men and young women, 
married and unmarried, both here and elsewhere, have 
great reason to be grateful to the founders of Manlius 
Academy for the education they received in that institu- 
tion. 

It is to be hoped that our boys and girls now attend- 
ing the schools about us will be as much benefited by the 
instruction they may receive as were the students of 
Manlius Academy where they were educated. Whatev- 
er new systems have been or may be got up, in the judg- 
ment of our best educators, the necessity for the Classi- 
cal Academy, as an intervening disciplinary institution 
between the early schools and the College, can never be 
superseded by novel or partial courses of study, or by 
any short roads to learning. According to one of our 
most distinguished College Presidents, "good Acade- 
mies are the great educational wants of the country in 
all the States south of New England." 



62 HISTORY OF MANLIUS VILLAGE. 



It is with pleasure that I here refer to an instance, in 
our vilhige history, of great liberality on the part of a 
gentleman who was formerly a citizen here, and at one 
time a member of Manlius Academy, but is now a resi- 
dent of Brooklyn in this State, although successfully en- 
gaged in business in the city of New York. I allude to 
the generous Contributions amounting to about eighteen 
hundred dollars, made about two years since, by Mr. 
Hayden W. Wheeler, toward the enlargement and im- 
provement of our Union School edifice, and to which lib- 
eral gifts he has recently made another contribution of 
valuable philosophical apparatus. 

Having formed a law-partnership with the late Nicho- 
las P. Eandall, I removed to this village on the 30th day 
of November, 1827, with my family; consisting of a 
young wife, a few law books and a small jag of furniture. 
We took board at first in the pleasant family of 1 loctor 
Taylor, who then resided in the since greatly improved 
dwelling of General Patrick. We remained with them 
about two moi.ths, when we commenced house keeping, 
on a small scale, in the story and a half house which 
then stood where Mr. Wallace Williams now lives. The 
main part of the house I first occupied now forms the 
east end of Mr. Chauncey D. White's house, having been 
removed there when Mr. Eichardson built the Williams 
house. 

There is a piece of romantic history connected with 
the dwelling house in which I first lived. It had been 
owned and occupied by Ralph R. Phelps, for many years 
a practicing lawyer in our village. He had an interest- 
ing and accomplished daughter. Richard H. Hopkins 
and Charles Williams were at the same time clerks in 
different stores in the village. They were both worthy 
young men and good friends. Unfortunately, and pei- 
haps fortunately, they both fell in love with Miss Phelps. 



HISTORY OF MANLIUS VILLAGE. 63 

The charms of this lady had bewitched them both. Mr. 
Hopkins carried the day, and married Miss Phelps. Mr. 
Hopkins was taller than Mr. Williams, and some ladies 
prefer a tall gentleman for a husband. However this 
may be, Mr. Williams, instead of going crazy and buy- 
ing a pistol and shooting Hopkins, as folks would be apt 
to do now-a-days, like a man of sense as he wks, wont and 
courted another lady and married her. The modern doc- 
trine of matrimonial affinity was then unknown, and Mr. 
Williams was not so stupid as to think that there was 
only one woman in the world good enough to be his 
wife. Mr. Hopkins, who was still residing in Manlius 
when I came here, afterwards removed to Chautauque 
county and went into business there. Mr. WilUams 
went to New York, and after serving as a clerk there for 
a while, entered into mercantile business in that city on 
his own account. Several years afterwards, Mr. Hopkins, 
having failed in business where he was, went to New 
York and first became clerk for Mr. Williams, and then 
entered into partnership with him. In process of time, 
Mr. Williams lost his wife, and became a widower. By 
this time the oldest daughter of Mr. Hopkins had ar- 
rived at marriageable age, and Mr. Williams, although 
then more than twice as old as Miss Hopkins, courted 
and married her. So, although he lost the mother as a 
wife, he afterwards gained tiie daughter, who was the 
image of her mother, as a loving wife ; and they do say 
that Miss Hopkins made a handsomer bride than her 
mother. 

Having spoken of Mr. Charles C. Richardson as hav- 
ing built the fine house of Mr. Wallace Williams, I may 
here stop a moment to drop a tear to his memory. He 
took especial pains in building the house on the hill, ma- 
king it the most thorough-built dwelling in our village, and 
no doubt looking forward to many pleasant and social 



64 HISTORY OP MANLIUS VILLAGE. 

days to be spent under its roof. The sad close of his 
once prominent career is known to you all. He was nat- 
urally a man of the most cheerful and generous temper- 
ament and disposition, and had a large circle of friends. 
I regret to be obliged here to say that the citizens of 
our \dllage have never been sufficiently alive to the fine 
natural scenery about us ; they have therefore neglected 
it, and suffered much of it to be destroyed. I never go 
to the summits of our hills, at the proper season, or take 
my friends there, without having my surprise excited 
that I do not go there more frequently to enjoy the mag- 
nificent views there presented. In the many country- 
places I have visited, I have found but few which are 
surrounded by fiuer natural scenery than is our own re- 
tired little village. This is the general testimony of 
strangers who have visited us. To what degree the po- 
etic genius of James O. Rockwell was quickened by his 
rambles over our hills, through our valleys and around 
our waterfalls, we cannot say, but we know that such 
scenes are calculated to awaken thought and excite po- 
etic inspiration ; and we know that during his youthful 
residence here, his pen first displayed his talent for 
rhyme, and that his more mature poems furnished ample 
evidence of his partiality for country scenery. 

Our waterfalls have had a reputation for loveHness 
abroad, in defiance of extraordinary neglect at home. 
Those in the West Branch of Limestone Creek, with the 
beautiful woodland scenery which suiTounded them 
when I came here, forty-five years ago, presented one of 
the most channing views in the world. When in Boston 
many years ago, an accomplished lady of that city, the 
daughter of one of the most distinguished Presidents of 
Hansard College, spoke to me in the highest terms of 
admiration and praise of those waterfalls. In traveUng 
through this part of the State, many years ago, on her 



HISTORY OF MANLIUS VILLAGE. 65 

return from a visit to Niagara, she stopped over at 
Sp'acuse and took a special conveyance to Manlius, ex 
pressly to visit those romantic falls, of which she had 
heard so much. Siie declared to me that there had beefe 
no exaggeration in all she had heard of their rare and 
romantic loveliness and beauty. At that time there 
stood on the north side of the West Falls a beautiful 
grove of forest trees, with charming openings for picnics 
and other out-door festivals, as well as for Fourth of Ju- 
ly celebrations. Here I heard, on one occasion, the clar- 
ion voice of a Methodist Bishop addressing a large 
crowd of attentive and excited hearers assembled in 
" Camp Meeting." I well recollect the strongly sympa- 
thizing responses, of his female hearers more especially, 
when their Chief Pastor \'indicated the doctrine of in- 
fant baptism. The assembled human forms, moving 
about amid the wild and attractive surrounding objects 
of nature, and in hearing of the plunging waterfall, pre. 
sented a most beautiful and enrapturing scene. In con- 
nection with the silver sheet of water beautifully passing 
down the precipice, from a height of seventy-two feet into 
the abyss below, that grove of trees rendered perfect the 
charming picture of nature^ 

One day, on going up with some lady visitors to view 
those falls, I was surprised, beyond measure, to find this 
beautiful grove entirely destroyed. I had not before 
heard of it. All the trees had been cut down, leaving 
nothing but shaggy and ungainly stumps to represent the 
green and beautifully branching forest trees which once 
adorned that lovely spot. I could scarcely credit my 
senses when I surveyed the desolate ground. The de- 
struction of this grove occasioned a loss to our village 
which can never be replaced. That grove should have 
been owned by the village, and preserved in its natural 
pristine beauty through all time. 



66 HISTORY OF MANLIUS VILLAGE. 

Our Mineral Springs at one time were receiving a good 
deal of attention, and had become quite a resort for in- 
valids, but their fate has been even more unfortunate 
than that of the wooded scenery about our waterfalls. 
Had the proprietor of the Elk-horn Springs, instead of 
placing his outhouses and a low uninviting dwelling on 
the elevated gi'ound above those springs, erected his 
buildings on the north side of the High Bridge road, and 
there put up a good sized two or three story house, with 
piazzas in froijt, and facing the beautiful valley in the 
south, and had he improved the grounds in a suitable 
manner, those springs would long since have become fa- 
mous, not only as a resort for invalids, but for the fash- 
ionable world ; and, no doubt, there would now stand 
there a well supported water-cure establishment. 

The local antiquities in our neighborhood, although 
destroyed for the most part by time and the plough, con- 
stitute a most interesting subject, and they have had fa- 
vorable notices from DeWitt Clinton, Henry R. School- 
craft, and other scientific and learned antiquarians. In 
his History of Onondaga, Mr. Clark devotes twei'ty- 
eight pages to this subject alone. 

If a museum of our portable antiquities had been got 
up here at the proper time, we might possibly have taken 
away from Syracuse the honor of entertaining the Cardiff 
Giant. However, it may yet turn out, if the giant was 
really a true man, that his wife or one of his children 
may be found in our neighborhood ; and then our chance 
will come, in due order of time, and we may be able to 
rmake as much out of the Wife or Daughter, as the Sy- 
acuse people did out of the Old Man, himself. 

It cost me about eight dollars to take my family to 
Syracuse to see the Giant; and when I got there, h% 
would not so much as look at me. I never was so hum- 
bugged in my life. I cannot better express my great 



HISTORY OF MANLIUS VILLAGE. 67 

_ - __ 

disappointment than by availing mystlf of the labors of 
one of our village poets : 

LINES ADDRESSED TO THE CAEDIFF GIANT BY A DISSAT- 
ISFIED VISITOR. 

Groat Cardiff Giant ! art thon real stone ? 
And wast thou once as real flesh and bone? 
Was thy huge friime with lite-blood ever warm, 
Before 'twas found, so cold, on Newell's farm ? 

Mysterious man ! where was thy place of birth ? 
How many aj^es didst thou live on earth ? 
What was thy name ? What Anak was thy sire? 
Wast thou a brother of the famed Goliah? 

In tender years wast thou a mother's joy ? 
How tall wast thou when but a little boy ? 
Ur wast thou then as tall as thou art now ? 
And didst thou often then kick up a low? 

Hard-headed man ! wilt thou no answer make? 
Will not thy tongue its stubborn silence break ? 
Thou ueed'bt not keep so stiff an upper Kp.j 
And hold thv hand, unmoved, behind thy hip ! 

I know thy pedigree's without a fl iw ; 
'Tis very plain thou wast no man of straw ! 
Thou wast a man of weight, and foremost then 
Didst take thy rank among tne solid men. 

Thy standing once was high — of noble mien ; 
Towering alott thy hairless pate was seen. 
Since then, alas ! how great has been thy fall, 
I'm certain now thou canst not stand at all ! 

Thou art a Hard Shell —sprawling on thy back— 
And whnt is more, a nut that's hard to crack ! 
I've said enough to thee ; go leave my sight ; 
For very clear it is. thou 'rt not upright ! 



68 HIstORY OF MANLID8 VILLAGE. 



CHAPTER XT. 

The gi'eat Institution of our village is our Annual Fair. 
This institution has now been in Existence fourteen years 
with marked prosperity and success. It has not only 
been a great triumph as an exhibition of the productions 
of our farmers, and of the skill of our mechanics, but it 
has become the occasion for a Grand He-union of our 
remaining old settlers, and all the other citizens of the 
town, as well as of sympathizing thousands from the sur- 
rounding neighborhood. We have made it our Fourth 
of July for rejoicing ; and our Fire Boys and their fel- 
lows from neighboring vill iges have occasionally made 
it take the place of the " General Trainings" of former 
days. 

Here old and young, married and unmarried, meet to- 
gether annually, in delightful intercourse. Our boys and 
girls appear here with agile steps and smiling faces, rig- 
ged out in " their Sunday best ;" and there is more court- 
ing done in Manlius Village during the two days of the 
Fair, than in all the rest of the county during the whole 
year. Boys who mean to become cross and stingy old 
bachelors had better not expose themselves at our fairs ; 
but girls who will have no objections to seeing their 
names in the Weekly Recorder, under the head of " re- 
cent marriages," had better be on hand early on both 
days. 

Our Fair Grounds are most eligibly situated, and a 
more beautiful panorama could scarcely be imagined, 
than are those grounds and the adjacent hills, on a 
bright autumnal day, when occupied and enlivened by 
the many thousands of citizens of all ages and condi- 
tions, on foot, on horseback and in carriages, scattered 
singly and in clusters over the beautiful landscape. 



HISTORY OF MANLIUS VILLAGE. 69 

Having already referred to the probability, that, with 
the blessing of a kind Providence, there will occur, in 
our village, at no very distant day, several Golden Wed- 
dings, it may not be ^ut of place to show how these 
things are managed by the ladies of Manlius Village. 
This I will do, by reproducing an account of a Silver 
Wedding which occurred here last August, of which the 
following description was then published in the Weekly 
Kecorder. It should be remarked, that the gentleman 
who then became a bridegroom for a second time and 
while a married man, had been for fourteen years the 
faithful secretary of " The Manlius and Pompey Agri- 
cultural and Mechanical Association," under whose au- 
spices all our Fairs have been held, and that the officers 
and members of that Association took a special interest 
in the silver-marriage of their steady Secretary : 

Silver Wedding. — Surprise Party. — The 6th of Au- 
gust being the twenty-fifth anniversary of the wedding of 
Doctor William Manlius Smith and his estimable wife, a 
number of their friends in the villages of Manlius and 
Fayetteville and their vicinities determined to celebrate 
the event by a surprise party. Always ready in emer- 
gencies and expedients to conceal their designs, some of 
the ladies managed to have the Doctor and wife invited 
to spend the anniversary of the nuptial day at the house 
of his brother, Mr. J. C. Smith, than which nothing could 
be more natural or appropriate. To give the ladies still 
more time for their mischievous preparations, the Doc- 
tor and his lady, after spending the most of the day at 
his brother's, were invited by the latter gentleman, near 
the close of the day, to take a ride with him on the rail- 
road and visit the tunnel near Cazenovia. Keturning 
fiom their ride, their host, of course, took his two guests 
home with him to tea. During all this time of absence 
from their home, the unsuspicious Doctor and his inno- 



70 HISTORY OF MANLIUS VILLAGE. 

• 

cent wife were wholly i<j;norant of the rliiving business 

which had heen cnriied on bj sevoal active young la- 
dies throughout the day, at the old Azariah Smith man- 
sion, in Manlius Village, now tht* Doctor's resilience. All 
things liad been placed in apple-pie order, including the 
putting to bed of six of the Doctor's olive branches, 
when the good Doctor and his wife reached their home 
at about eight o'elcck. The outside blinds of the house 
had been carcfull}' closed and the lights inside turned 
down, and there was a studied qui(^tness all around, when 
they opened the front door of their dwelling. Judge of 
their surprise T\hen their house was suddenly lighted up 
and crowded with friends, and tables ovei flowing with 
delicacies presented to their view. An evergreen arch 
spanned the entrance to the hall, in which were 
neatly placed the word, " Welcome," in silver letters. 
Twrnty-five stars had been tastefully arranged on the 
parlor wall, with the years 1847 and 1872 in elegant print 
on either side. A large wed. ling cake graced a centre- 
table in the middle of the parlor, with the years above 
mentioned in the centre, and a constellation of ten stars 
around them, being the bona fide number of their chil- 
dren. The Doctt r and his hidy, on being introduced to 
the company by Mr. Van Schuack, were informed by 
that gentleman that the company present had taken law- 
ful possession of their house for the evening, and they 
must consider themselves the guests instead of the hosts 
for the occasion, and conduct themselves accordirgly. 
Among other things, the guests were particularly con- 
gratulated by Mr. Van S. on the fact, now so rare, of 
having had their happy connubial union crowned and 
blessed with a large and promising family of children, 
who would, no doubt, be sources of joy, comfort and sup- 
port to them in old age. It was designed by the mana- 
gers of this delightful afl'air, that the occasion should not 



HISTORY OF MANLIUS VILLAGE. 



71 



be one for making presents, and notice to that effect had 
been given ; nevertheless, quite a number of choice silver 
gifts, made by highly valued friends, will long be pre- 
served by their recipients as mementoes of a most inter- 
esting occasion which afforded unmixed delight to all 
who were present. V. S. 

I am here reminded of a genuine wedding, wtiich I 
ought to have noticed before. Among the remarkable 
ladies residing in our village when I came here, was 
Mistress Lydia Babcock. I do not give her this title as 
a married lady, for such, at that period, she was not ; 
but as one, who, according to Johnson and Webster, and 
other standard lexicographers, was entitled to that des- 
ignation as the female head of a family. 

As an intelli>:ent, self reliant, and energetic housekeep- 
er, Mistress Babcock had few equals. As a Christian 
lady of large benevolence and practical usefulness in so- 
ciety, she had no superior. As the substantial friend of 
many dependent young ladies, whom she fitted for self- 
support and usefulness in life, she was truly a Mother. 
As a member of the Church to which she belonged, she 
was a pillar, and a trusty counsellor. 

The wedding to which I refer was remarkable, among 
other things, for its having established the fact, that 
some ladies rovM" keep a secret;" for the intended event 
was a profound secret up to the moment that it took 
place. I take pleasure in thus awarding to some ladies 
in Manlius Village the credit of having demonstrated 
this delicate proposition. 

I had an invitation to the wedding ; — no, not to the 
wedding, but to come to Mistress Babcock's residence, 
on a certain Sunday evening, without naming the object. 
I repaired thither with my wife, and a prayer-book un- 
der my arm. Cottage religious assemblages were not 
uncommon, at that time ; and the young people were ac- 



72 HISTORY OF MANLIUS VILLAGE. 



customed also to meet for religious conference, and pre- 
pared to take notes of qntstions and conversations on 
religious subjects. In accordance with this practice, 
many ladies appeared at the residence of Mistress Bab- 
cock, with note books ant' pencils in hand. Soon many 
circumstances combined to start misgivings as to the 
object of the assemblage of so many people ; and then, 
why were staid and aged Presbyteriaus present at this 
Episcopal meeting? AVhy was the Mistress of the house 
absent from the room? Why was there so much stir, 
and whispering in the house, and so frequent going up 
and down stairs ? Why did the young ladies of the 
house pass from room to room with such bright and 
smiling faces ? All these little unusual circumstances 
were accompanied by yet another interesting feature : — 
the presence of an intelligent, dignified, and well-dressed 
gentleman, bordering on sixty, from a neighboring town. 
This partly opened our eyes, by throwing light on a mys- 
tery, which was soon completely solved, by the very 
suitable and seusiblb marriage of Colonel John Sprague, 
of Pompey, aged 56, and Mistress Lydia Babcock, of 
Manlius Village, aged 54. 

It is stated, and it was too natural not to be true, that 
on getting into a buggy the next morning after their 
marriage, Mrs. Sprague took that side of the vehicle 
which belonged to her husband as driver, so confirmed 
had the habit become for this lady to hold the reins of 
government. This little mistake being corrected, the 
old couple proceeded on their way rejoicing. 

And now, while we are recalling to mind so many of 
our departed old settlers and friends, and refreshing our 
memories with their characteristics and virtues, we must 
not forget to give a place in oui unpretending history, 
to good old " Aunt Peggy." Her dark skin did not, and 
ought not to deprive her of that place in onr respect 
and esteem, to which her man}* simple virtues, and her 



HISTOEY OF MANLIUS VILLAGE. 73 



appropriate conduct justl}' entitled her. She was ever 
welcome to our dwellings, and her wants were notgrudg" 
ingly supplied by her numerous and considerate friends. 

Peggy Lenison was a " venerable Christian, upon 
whose head near four score and ten winters had shed 
their snoAvs. She was of African lineage. Born a slave, 
she was reared under the scourge of the task-master, 
and schooled under the chastening rod of adversity. 
Honest, faithful, and true, through life she bravely buf- 
feted the billows of poverty, and cheerfully encountered 
the dreary vicissitudes of her pilgrimage. 

" The husband of her choice, like Jacob of old, served 
her master faithfully for her freedom ; and, in due time, 
they rejoiced in her deliverance from bondage. 

" Every child knew and loved 'Aunt Peggy ;' and all 
returned her cheerful smile, and gentle nod, as she tot- 
tered along the street, supported by her rude staff, with 
basket in hand. 

" 'Aunt Peggy' was a member of the Methodist com- 
munion ; but, on Christmas and Easter holidays, we have 
often seen her devoutly kneeling at God's altar, in Chris- 
tian fellowship with Episcopalians, and there partake of 
the symbols of our Saviour's dying love. 

"It is not often, that an individual occupying so hum- 
ble a station, through a long life time, has so deep a hold 
upon the affections of the community ; and so entirely 
commanded the esteem of society at large. 

"A large* concourse of people attended her funeral. The 
several religious societies of the village joined in the last 
sad obsequies, and manifested in a most feeling manner 
their respect for the deceased." 

No longer upon earth, to be subject to the dominion 
of tyrannical man, Aunt Peggy, as we doubt not, is now 
a saint in Heaven, having been fully " delivered from 
the bond of corruption into the glorious liberty of the 
children of God." 



74 HISTORY OF MANLIUS VILLAGE. 

CHAPTER Xn. 

There are many fine building sites in and about our 
village, with commanding and expansive views, which 
are very suitable to be improved for residences b}' gen- 
tlemen of taste and wealthy persons from abroad. Wheth- 
er our new railroad shall prove a decided and permanent 
advantage to us or not, and whether we shall be able in 
any other way gi'eatly to increase the business of the 
place or not, we certainly have it in our power to make 
this a very pleasant village for private residences. It is 
now pretty well set out with shade trees, but more can 
be done to beautify it in this regard. Our greatest reli- 
ance however for the increase of business here must be 
the improvement of our natural water power. It is in- 
deed very extraordinary that this great power should 
have been so little improved in the last fifty years. 

Although we have no gold or silver mines in this re- 
gion, yet we have imbedded in the hills of our immedi- 
ate vicinity valuable and inexhaustible quantities of 
water-lime, plaster, quick limestone and excellent mon- 
umental and building stone ; and these ind spensable 
articles of commerce are to be found sufficiently near to 
our neW' railroad to be conveniently transported to mar- 
ket. If to our present manufactories of paper, leather, 
carriages, furniture, mowers and reapers, brick and tile, 
tobacco and cheese boxes, segars, ploughs ai'd other ag- 
ricultural implements, with our furnaces, flour mills, 
plaster mills, lime mills and woolen mills, we can so ex- 
tend and improve our water power as to favor the intro- 
duction of additional manufacturing establishments and 
mercantile industries, our village may yet become, at no 
distant day, a large and prosperous business place. It 
is much more of a manufacturing place now than it ever 
was before, and a greater variety of articles is manufac- 
tured here now than at any former period. 



HISTORY OF MANLIUS VILLAGE. 75 

We had here, at one time, three cotton factories, which 
were then the only manufactories of that description in 
our county, and, as I believe, in this part of the State. If 
these factories had been in operation during the late civ- 
il war, their owners would have made independent for- 
tunes. Why cannot we have such factories here again ? 

Manhus people have always appeared to me to be a 
plain, steady, prudent, straight-forward sort of people. 
No dwellers in our callage seem to set themselves up for 
big folks ; or take airs upon themselves ; or undertake 
to lord it over other people ; or make any great display 
in the world. Our people are wilhng to stop in the streets, 
and speak to their neighbors, and shake hands with 
them. There are no aristocrats, or purse-proud people 
here that I know of ; and probably one reason is, that 
no one has got any thing in his purse to be proud of, 
these hard times. Manlius people are not great on dissi- 
pation, and I am glad of it. They detest sham, flattery, 
outside show, and humbug. They don't like to be driven 
too hard, and wont submit to it. Your politic schemers 
had better keep out of the place ; and none need come 
here thinking that they " know it all," and und^ake to 
ignore the existent state of things with our plain settled 
habits and manners. We are afraid of the man who bows 
and scrapes and tips his hat too much. Manlius people 
don't claim to be perfect, and there are mischief makers 
and unreasonable fault finders here as elsewhere. Some 
of our people really love to pay their debts, while others 
don't, but, as I am very sorry to say, try to creep out of 
them. The citizens of Manhus Village are not very ex- 
citable, but rather phlegmatic, with but little boast or 
brag about them— not a hundi-edth part as much as in 
some other villages, not a hundi-ed miles away. At all 
events not enough brag about them to hurt them much ; 
and some people think that if we had a Uttle more it 



76 HISTORY OF MANLIUS VILLAGE. 

would do US good. We certainly have not had as much 
ambition and enterprise as is desirable. We have not 
appreciated our interesting position. We have not fully 
improved our advantages. In this matter, we have all 
perhaps been alike guilty of neglect. O.ir people have 
attended to their own private affairs, and have perhaps 
injured even them, by not attending a little more to gen- 
ex'al objects. In this, possibly, we have been not a little 
selfish ; and we must try to do better in the future. 
There is always room for amendment, and repentance, 
like charity, begins at home. 

In the preparation of these notes, it has been to me a 
sad task, and has caused many melancholy reflections, 
to pass from house to house in our village, and trace 
back those who were once known to me as its living oc- 
cupants, but who are now numbered with the dead. 
Scarcely a dwelling here but death has visited it, and to 
not a few of tiiose dwellings many such visits have been 
paid. It shows the instability also of earthly things, 
tiiat not only have their former occupants departed this 
life-, but very many of them have left none to represent 
them, liere or elsewhere ; and in some instances, the very 
dwellings in which they once resided have tumbled down, 
or been razed to the ground. 

Of the families residing here when I came to the vil- 
lage, in 1827, 1 can name only foiir, of which both the 
heads are now living, either here or elsewhere.* These 
circumstances are not perhaps so extraordinary in them- 
selves considered, for one whole generation and a third 

*N()TE. — Tbey nie Mr. and Mrs. ArnoM Rciuiugton, Mr. and Mrs. 
Peter Wormood, Mr. and Mrs. Kowlaud Cudwtll, and Mr. and Mrs. 
Daniel C McClenthen. I can only unme lonrteen otheisoi onr old 
taniilies of which one head now survives either here or elsewliere. Thi^y 
are S. L. Edwards, John Wilkie. [llmtrions Reming on, Robert Gilmor, 
Elihu L. Phillips, Henry W. Ewers. Alv:ih B. McCUiithnn. Mr-<. Ran- 
dall, Mrs. Rhoades, Mrs. Graves, Mrs. Loyd Remington, Mrs. WLitney, 
Mn;. Washburn and Mrs. Perry. 



HISTORY OF MANLIUS VILLAGE. 77 

of another have come upon the stage since the year to 
which I have referred ; yet are they very impressive 
facts. 

Of the famihes Hving here in 1827, of which both the 
heads are now dead, I cannot name more than twelve 
who have descendants residing here at this time, chil- 
dren or grand-children. No floubt the real number is 
somewhat greater ; and I could name at least forty of 
those old families whose heads are deceased, that have 
descendants now living in other places ; so that all our 
old ManHus families are not likely to become extinct 
very soon. 

The enumerations I have just made, naturally bring 
us to the consideration of another subject, and I cannot 
therefore conclude without adverting to that subject as 
one in which none of us can fail to take some interest. 
I allude to our graveyard, and to our duties with refer- 
ence thereto. It is there that most of us expect to lie. 

It is one of the evidences of a just and refined taste, as 
well as of a higher civilization, that much gi'eater atten- 
tion is now paid in our country to the subject of secu- 
ring and beautifying suitable places for the interment of 
the dead, than at any former period. On this subject, 
we, in this village, have been rather behind the times ; 
but a very considerable advance in this matter has lat- 
terly been made ; and for his useful, judicious, and per- 
severing services, in regard more particularly to the old 
cemetery, Mr. John C. Losey is entitled to our hearty 
thanks. 

What is now desirable is, that the new cemetery should 
be extended as far west as the old graveyard, so as to 
bring the two into a nearly square form, for eventually 
they will no doubt be one. Then to enclose the whole 
in a substantial stone wall; surround it by a row of 
shade trees ; ornamenting with shrubbery the knoll in 



78 HISTORY OF MANLIUS VILLAGE. 



in the middle of the North Lune, and making semicircu- 
lar walks around the knoll to pass in and out. It is hoped 
that at no distant day th.se improvements will yet be ac- 
complished. 

And now, in bringing my little history to a close, I 
think I will venture to " say, with Corregio :— and I too 
am a painter." 



HISTORY OF MANLIUS VILLAGE. 79 



APPENDIX. 

Having failed to procure the Prize Poem of Jam- s O. 
Eoc'vwell referred to in the pr ceding History, another 
greatly admired specimen of his poetic effusions is sub- 
joined : 

THE LOST AT SEA. 



BY JAMES O. BOCKWELL. 



Wife. wLo in thy deep devotion 

PiittcHt np a prayer for one 
Sailing on the stormy ocean, 

H"pe no more— hif> course is done. 
Dnam not, when upon thy pillow, 

That he slumbers by thy side ; 
For his corse beneath the billow 

Heaveth with the restless tide. 

Children, who. as sweet flowers growing, 

Laugh amid thfl sorrowing rains, 
Know ye many clouds are throwing 

Shadows on your sire's remains? 
Where the hoarse, gray surge is rolling 

With a morntain's motion on. 
Dream ye that its voice is tolling 

tor your father lost and gone ? 

When the sun look'd on the water. 

As a hero on his grave. 
Tinging with the hue of slaughter 

Every biue and leaping wave, 
Under the majestic ocean, 

Where the giant current roll'd, 
Slept thy sire, without emotion, 

Sweetly by a beam of gold ; 

And the silent sunbeams slanted. 

Wavering through the crystal deep. 
Till their wonted splendors haunted 

Those shut eyi^lids in their sleep. 
Sands, like crumbled silver gleaming. 

Sparkled through his raven hair ; 
But^the 8leep"that,knows no dreaming 

'Bound him in its silence there. 



80 HISTORY OF MANLIDS VILLAGE. 

So we left him ; aud to tell thee 

Of our 8or ow and thine own, 
Of the woo thrtt then befell thee, 

Come we weary and iilone. 
That thine eye is qnicklv shiided. 

That thy henrt-blood wildly llows, t 

That thy cheek's clear hue is laded. 

Are the fruits of these new woes. 

Children, whose meek eyes, inquiring 

Linger on your mother's face — 
Know ye that Khe is expiring. 

That ye are an orphan race ? 
God be with you on the morrow. 

Father, mother, — both no more ; 
One within a grave of sorrow, 

One upon the ocean's floor ! 

Whittier on Eockwell —On the death of James O. 
Eockwell, the early poet of Maulius Village, the follow- 
ing lines Were inscribed to his memory by the poet Whit- 
tier : 

The turf is smooth above hiui ! and this rain 
Will moisten the rent roots, and s'lmmon back 
The perishing life of its green-bladed grass. 
And the crush'd flower will lift its head again 
Smilingly unto heaven, as if it kept 
No vigil with the dead. Well—it is meet 
That the green grass should tremble, and the flowers 
Blow Willi about his resting-place. His mind 
Whs in itself a flower but half disclosed^ 
# A bud of blessed promise which the stom 
Visited rudely, and the passers liy 
Smote down in wantonness. But we may trust 
That it hath found a dwelling, where the sun 
Of a more holy clime will visit it, 
\nd the pure dews of mercy "ill descend. 
Through Heaveii's own atmosphere, upon its head. 
His form is now before me, with no trace 
Ot death in its fine lineaments, and there 
Is a faint crimson on his youthful cheek. 
And his free lip is softening with the smile 
Which in his eye is kindling. I con feel 
The parting pressure of his hand, and hear 
His last • God bless you !" Stranf^e -that he is there 
Distinct betbre me like a breathing thing. 
Even when I know that he is with the dead. 
And thai the damp earth hides him. I would not 
Think of him otherwise — his image lives 
Within my memory as he seem'd before 
The curse of blighted feeling, and the toil 
And fever ot an uncongenial strife, hadfleft 
Their traces on his aspect. Peace to him ! 



HISTORY OF MANLIUS VILLAGE. 



81 



He wrestled nobly with the weariness 
And trials of our beinj?- smiiins^ on, 
While poison mingled with his springs of life. 
And wearing a calm brow, while on his heart 
Anguish was resting like a hand of fire — 
Until at last the agony of thought 
Grew insupportable, and tuadness came 
Dirkly upon him. — and the sufferer died ! 
Nor died he unlauiented ! To his grave 
The beautiful and gifted shall go np, 
And muse upon the sleeper. And young lips 
Shall murmur lu the broken tones of grief 
His own sweet melodies— and if the ear 
Of the freed spirit heedeth aught b-neath 
The brightness nt its new iuberitiince, 
It may be joyful to the parted one 
To feel that earth rememliers him in love ! 



THE END. 



i 



82 HISTORY OF MANLIUS VnXAGE. 



ERRATA. 



Page 9, line 7 from bottom, for " on horseback," read 
" on his back." 

Page 10, line 6, for " deers," read " deer." 

Page 11, line 8 from bottom, for "fine boats," read 
" line boats." 

A number of other errors which escaped the eye of 
the proof examiner, will readil} be noticed bj the reader 
of the History. 



